Exploratour - Life in the Solar System

This is an image showing the clouds of Titan.
Click on image for full size
NASA

Titan's atmosphere is a lot like the Earth's, except that it is very cold, from -330 degrees to -290 degrees F! Like the Earth, there is a lot of Nitrogen and other complex molecules. There also may be an ocean of methane, or perhaps a liquid water layer inside the moon. Except for the cold, these signs would be favorable for some sort of life. Some creatures on Earth are known to live in an environment of very cold water.

In the atmosphere there are layers of clouds composed of complex molecules such as methane. Moreover there is energy from ultraviolet light, and the charged particles of the magnetosphere. This type of environment, aside from the cold, is the kind of environment in which scientists think life began.

Overall, the environment sounds unfriendly to life as we know it on earth, because of the cold. Since not much is known about the moon Titan, up close exploration of this moon, with a probe, as shown in this drawing, would help scientists better understand if life could survive there.

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Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA