Saturn’s moon Titan is largely covered in organic material
Before NASA’s Cassini mission ended its study of Saturn in 2017, it also flew by Saturn’s moon, Titan. The data provided by the Hyugens probe, which was part of the mission, suggested that Titan was the perfect candidate for further exploration.
And now, that data has helped scientists put together the first global geological map of the intriguing icy moon, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Larger than both our own moon and the planet Mercury, Titan is unique in our solar system. It is the only moon with clouds and a dense atmosphere of nitrogen and methane, which gives it a fuzzy orange appearance.
That dense atmosphere once obscured a greater understanding of Titan from view. But the Cassini data was able to peel back those layers, which is why it’s so valuable.
Data from infrared and radar instruments on Cassini reconstructed and mapped the surface of Titan, showcasing six major geological forms along with their age and distribution, as well as the poles.
The first global geologic map of Titan is based on radar and visible-light images from NASA’s Cassini mission.
Titan also has Earth-like liquid bodies on its surface, but the rivers, lakes and seas are made of liquid ethane and methane, which form clouds and cause liquid gas to rain from the sky.
The surface temperature is so cold that the rivers and lakes were carved out by methane, the way rocks and lava helped to form features and channels on Earth.
Titan is also believed to have an internal liquid water ocean, like those on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, and Enceladus, another of Saturn’s moons. A few years ago, NASA announced that Europa and Enceladus’ oceans have some or most of the ingredients necessary for life as we know it.
Titan’s geology is dependent on latitude. At the equator, young dune fields dominate while lakes can be found at the poles.
But the most prominent feature of Titan is intriguing to scientists: organic plains.
The moon’s methane cycle is the driver of its geology — at the poles, humidity helps methane remain in its liquid state. Around the equator, a more arid climate allows dunes sculpted by wind to remain intact.
“The strong latitudinal dependence of the different units gives us clues about how the methane cycle is operating, though there are still mysteries,” said Rosaly Lopes, study author and senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “For example, most of the surface is covered by organic materials, particularly plains (65%) and dunes (17%). These are formed, we think, by organic materials falling down from the atmosphere and being moved around by wind. So this tells us that winds have been very important shaping the surface of Titan.”
The discovery that much of Titan is covered in organic plains came as a surprise to the researchers.
“People tend to know more about and study the more ‘interesting’ features on Titan, such as lakes (which cover only 1.5% of the surface),” Lopes said. “The older materials, which we call hummocky, consist mostly of hills and mountains, which we think represent the icy shell or crust poke out here and there. But [they] consist of only 14% of the surface. They have largely been covered over by the organic plains and the dunes.”
Earlier this year, NASA announced that the Dragonfly mission will launch in 2026 and explore Titan in 2034.
The ultimate goal is for Dragonfly to visit an impact crater, where they believe that important ingredients for life mixed together when something hit Titan in the past, possibly tens of thousands of years ago.
Read more at edition.cnn.com
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Andy Rowlands
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Very interesting, Jupiter’s moon Europa is also suspected of having all the ingredients for life, if not some kind of aquatic life itself, in the (relatively) warm oceans beneath the icy surface.
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Vance Lunn
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I was like: “That photo is not Titan! It is Europa.” Then I saw the article is coming from CNN. So that explains it. Remember guys, CNN articles require verification.
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JaKo
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That’s right Vance,
Further, in the background isn’t Saturn but Jupiter (obviously;)
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Tom O
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I seriously doubt that the “graphic” is a photo. Looks like an artist’s depiction. When was the last time any objects “orbit” was seen in a photo?
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jerry krause
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Hi Tom,
The biggest problem I have is: What is the claimed organic matter that covers the surface of Titan?
Have a good day, Jerry
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Joseph Olson
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“Fossil Fuel is Nuclear Waste” > CanadaFreePress(.)com > Sept 2010
Carbon climate forcing is one of the trilogies of ENERGY lies from monopolists. Rockefeller and the USGS created the finite “fossil” fiction to limit exploration by competitors. AGW was concocted to drive up price. Green energy is to substitute NON SUSTAINABLE scams for future shortages. Titan never had a dinosaur or a fern. Hydrocarbons exist throughout the Universe and are the precursors of life, not a byproduct.
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