Found: A Second Earth?
August 11th 2009 18:44
Could Titan be a second earth?
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon and the second largest moon in our solar system, has become a place of extreme interest for scientists worldwide. Although Titan is over 1.5 billion kilometers away from Earth, scientists have found that it shares many common characteristics with Earth.
Titan not only has a variety of weather such as wind and precipitation, but it also contains geographic similarities with earth. It possesses volcanoes, tectonic plates, mountains, dunes, and large lakes. However, the precipitation and “lakes” on Saturn’s moon are far from what you would expect to find on Earth. Instead of a water based weather system, Titan contains large pools of liquid hydrocarbons including methane and ethane. Furthermore, Titan’s geographic masses similar to Earth’s volcanoes release ice and ammonia rather than molten lava released by Earth’s volcanoes.
Nonetheless, scientists are still amazed at the geographic similarity presented by Saturn’s moon Titan.
"It is really surprising how closely Titan's surface resembles Earth's,” said Rosaly Lopes, a planetary geologist specialist who works for NASA. "In fact, Titan looks more like the Earth than any other body in the solar system, despite the huge differences in temperature and other environmental conditions."
Scientists also speculate over the possibility of life on this desolate and freezing cold world.
"It has not escaped our attention that ammonia, in association with methane and nitrogen, the principal species of Titan's atmosphere, closely replicates the environment at the time that life first emerged on Earth. One exciting question is whether Titan's chemical processes today support a prebiotic chemistry similar to that under which life evolved on Earth?"
What do you think? Type up a comment below and vote on this article if you found it helpful or interesting!"
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Comment by Norm
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Comment by Mr Nice Guy
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In evolutionary terms sounds like there's certainly a few similarities - in practical terms I think we are drawing a pretty long bow.
The 'artists impressions' I saw lend comfortable weight to the argument - but I suspect it made more for good reading on page 16 of the tabloids.
Comment by Alain
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Comment by Wilson Pon
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Of course, it takes time...
Comment by scinetstudio
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Comment by Bloodyaugust
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You may want to clarify that at one point scientists were excited about finding life on Mars, and about its geographic similarities. We all know now that there is no way.
Water must be found in its liquid state......
Comment by Jeff Musall
Comment by Bloodyaugust
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This means that, with our current knowledge of how life can evolve, it IS impossible for there to be life on Mars.