Searching for signs of life on other planets—at least in our own solar system—has always been a bit of a fool's errand. Other than Mars, which may have been teeming with biology long ago but has dried to dust since, the planets look decidedly barren. But the moons may be another story. Some of the smaller bodies that circle our sibling planets are wet, hazy, and dense with organic chemistry and could be little cosmic nurseries. Of all of them, few top &to=http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/14858_titan.html' target=_blank>Saturn's giant moon Titan for pure biological potential.
Astronomers analyzing Titan's chemically rich atmosphere had long believed the moon could be an organically astonishing place, but until the Huygens space probe parachuted down onto the moon's surface last January, nobody knew for sure. This week, a flurry of seven papers were published on the website of the journal Nature, analyzing the data the ship was able to send home in the few hours it stayed alive on the bitterly cold world. That data confirmed everything astronomers had hoped might be true about the oddly Earth-like place, reports Time.
According to Ireland Online, the Huygens probe and its mother ship, Cassini, have offered evidence against that theory. The £2bn (€2.9bn) Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its moons was launched in 1997 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, a joint effort involving &to=http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/379/15424_comet.html' target=_blank>Nasa, Esa and the Italian space agency.
The aerosols that form Titan’s clouds are made from molecules that include carbon and nitrogen – compounds generated in photochemical smog and circulated by rain and the atmosphere, researchers reported in Nature.
Researchers said there was no reason to believe Titan’s methane is a product of biological activity.
Yet more methane is appearing constantly and may burst from ice volcanos or fall as rain, researchers said, describing riverbed and drainage channels spotted during the craft’s descent January 14.
Scientists described the moon’s freezing temperatures: minus 179 degrees Celsius (minus 290 Fahrenheit) at the surface. The atmosphere has distinct layers and may offer evidence of lightning.
Titan’s smoggy atmosphere may be similar to that of the primordial Earth, and scientists believe that studying it could provide clues to how life began.
The first results from the Huygens probe were released in January: Black-and-white photos showed a rugged terrain of ridges, peaks, vein-like channels and apparently dry lakebeds on the moon 740 million miles away.
O.Ch.
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