Something Weird Is Happening On the Moon Titan

 

What could be more exciting than traversing the deserts of Mars?

 How about playing Captain Sparrow  on Saturn's mysterious foggy moon Titan Plumbing the depths of a methane ocean Dodging hydrocarbon icebergs

 and exploring an ancient frigid shoreline of organic goo a billion miles from the sun Welcome the Science Reads and today we will be taking you on a journey to discover the strange findings on the ringed planet's earth-like moon mysterious methane titan is the largest of the 62 Titan is the largest of the 62 known moons orbiting Saturn For years this celestial body has remained an enigma being larger than the planet Mercury and nearly twice the size of our moon it is also the only extraterrestrial body known to regularly support liquid on its surface

 on the surface of titan the atmospheric pressure is about 60 percent greater

 than that on Earth

 this is about the same pressure

 a person would feel swimming at 50 feet or 15 meters below the surface of the earth's ocean because Titan is less massive than earth its gravity doesn't hold on to its gaseous envelope as tightly which allows for the atmosphere to extend to an altitude 10 times higher than earth's nearly 370 miles into space it's one of the only moons in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere which is 98 hydrogen and 2 percent methane that also means it has impressive landscapes shaped by weather and rainstorms but titan's lakes aren't filled with water instead they're full of oily ethane and methane like liquefied natural gas the methane in titan's atmosphere is what makes its complex atmospheric chemistry possible the source of the methane is a whole other story the fact that titan's methane is continually broken down by sunlight leads scientists to believe that there is a mysterious source that is replenishing it volcanic activity could be one such possibility but has yet to be confirmed the striking resemblance that titan bears to the Earth in terms of its components is insane and it even makes us question if we should be considering life on Titan rather than trying to find ways to build cities on Mars

 someone needs to get the memo out to Elon Musk Kraken Mare and the Magic Islands

 Although Titan shares many similarities  with our planet it certainly has some things that

 are uniquely its own

 as you can see the satellite appears to be slightly squashed in shape at the poles this is where scientists have discovered an abundance of methane lakes these mysterious anomalies have become known as the Magic Islands Titan happens to be the only other place besides earth in our solar system that has stable liquids on its surface in the form of seas and lakes made up of nitrogen ethane and methane when NASA's Cassini probe flew just 600 miles above Titan it was gathering data about the depth of the lakes across the moon's surface the one that stands out and continues to intrigue scientists is Kraken Mare it doesn't just have a cool name this behemoth is larger than all of the great lakes combined and contains over 80 percent of the moon's surface liquids but when Cassini tried to measure the depth of crack and mare its radar never reached the bottom what does this mean this tells us that the lake could very well be over 1,000 feet deep for perspective that is as deep as nuclear submarines will admit to going or deeper than Lake Michigan scientists will continue to unravel the mysteries of these methane lakes with the hopes of one day sending a robotic submarine to voyage on and eventually under these mysterious oceans methane rain having so many natural processes similar to the earth it's not really surprising that it rains on titan only there's a major difference it doesn't rain water but rather methane because methane exists as a liquid on Titan as it evaporates it forms clouds and occasionally causes methane showers standing in such a rainstorm would be a strange experience considering titan's average surface temperature is about negative 290 degrees fahrenheit Rajani Dingra of NASA's JPL comments it rain drops on titan should fall extra slowly because of the low gravity and thick haze so if you stood there in the rain you would literally feel each drop falling on you dingra says unlike the earth sunlight is relatively dim on titan due to its thick atmosphere this means that although possible it would be extremely rare to see a rainbow on titan moon of mischief titan shape is surprisingly not spherical as you might assume but what's even more fascinating about the satellite is the fact that it actually changes shape hold on to your scepter Loki you're not so special after all Titan orbits Saturn on an elliptical path once every 16 days when the Cassini probe was carried out on titan it was found that the surface of the moon rises and falls by as much as 10 whole meters during a single orbit what does this mean as the huge satellite orbits the ringed planet it changes its shape the varying tidal pull from Saturn causes it to be stretched into a rugby ball shape at its closest point to the gas giant and is more spherical at its most distant point this mischievous marvel is certainly the most interesting sibling in its family unique structure although Titan structure isn't fully known data from the cassini-huygens missions have suggested that the moon has five layers to its structure the innermost core is said to be made up of rock more specifically a water-bearing silicate of about 2500 miles this core is encircled by what seems to be several layers of different crystalline forms of ice which can only be found at extremely high pressures the next layer is a salty liquid water and further a crust made up of water ice the surface contains organic molecules as a result of having been rained down or come from outside the atmosphere further studies and investigations are actively being carried out to know more about the structure of the moon middle earth one of the most amazing features of planet earth are the stunning mountain ranges we have as for Titan the Cassini probe showed several images and has identified several mountains on Titan as of now the highest mountain that has been found on Titan stands at a height of 10 948 feet in what is called the Mithrim Montes range if this name sounds familiar it's because you may have heard it before in fact all the mountains and notable hills that have since been discovered on Titan have been named after the mountain peaks and J.R.R Tolkien's famous trilogy The Lord of the Rings Titan has some very cool mountain names indeed for all you lord of the rings fans this might sound like a dream come true titan itself gets its name from Greek mythology and is named after the elder gods called the titans who were said to have ruled before the olympians ever came to power now with mountains like Moriyamans named after mountains of Morya Arabourmans named after Erebor or even Ang Marmans like the mountains of Angmar this satellite just got 10 times cooler sign me up sand dunes Titan also happens to feature its very own sand dunes much like Earth to understand what they look like you can compare them to the sand dunes you see in the deserts of namibia africa the difference here though is that the dunes are not made of silicate sand there is a slight debate over this with some investigators insisting that the dunes are made up of rock that was eroded by liquid methane while others suggest that these dunes have some organic compounds possibly rained down from the moon's atmosphere in a snow-like manner though this is yet to be confirmed various studies of the dunes have shown that the materials are not liquid which could possibly mean that titan does have some sort of photochemical reactions in its atmosphere ice volcanoes this is still just a theory but a lot of studies have been hinting at the fact that there could possibly be ice volcanoes on titan honestly this sounds like the coolest place in the solar system the theory comes from the fact that ice volcanoes could be the mechanism behind the high levels of methane in titan's atmosphere the amount of liquid methane in the surface of titan is not enough to justify the high levels of atmospheric methane and the possibility of there being ice volcanoes there seems more and more real back in 2008 two possible ice volcanoes seem to be spewing water and ammonia which just so happens to be the source of atmospheric methane the discovery hasn't confirmed they are ice volcanoes per se but all information so far does lean heavily on this theory life on titan that is the question we all want to know isn't it will life ever be possible on titan as space agencies and companies are searching for the possibility of relocating mankind titan happens to be a great contender the possibility itself shows that there is in fact scope for endless possibilities if the sun's temperature were to increase it would be possible for the temperature on titan to increase and could be good enough for stable oceans to exist on its surface for example this would be favorable as conditions would be much more earth-like and would possibly allow for some life-forms to exist there scientists previously thought that the moon's atmospheric chemistry was not suitable or rather dull while new studies and experiments have shown that the same light that drives biological chemistry on earth could be doing the same on titan the difference being that the sun is further away from titan and it's much colder there as of now there is yet a lot to uncover about the giant satellite but it certainly has many favorable conditions that could make it a more habitable place than we think one thing is for certain in all the years of studies and flybys that have been conducted by the cassini spacecraft titan continues to be a mystery it's still far too early to say if life on titan could be a viable solution or a possibility but the thick atmosphere nitrogen stable liquids dynamic weather system landscapes and various other observed oddities definitely gives us a glimmer of hope and has made this place a destination for more exploration so what are your thoughts do you

 think we could ever have life on titan let us know in the comments please like and share the article and don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more articles like this thanks for reading we'll see you next time