Year: 2018-19
Yuna Lee
School: Korea International School
Grade: Jeju
City: 11
Teacher: Mike Palmer
Despite its great distance from Earth, Titan’s still has many physical similarities with our own planet and could also be a potential habitat for extraterrestrial life. The existence of liquid on its surface and its unique topography has inspired scientists to further analyze Titan in order to find more similarities with Earth and other potential elements which could contribute to the formation of life there.
Titan’s terrestrial land, where a potential ecosystem for extraterrestrial life could exist, has been the primary target of analysis for scientists in the past. Comparative studies between Earth and Titan’s lakes have noted that Titan’s lakes are reminiscent of karstic land forms in Earth. Scientists have analyzed the chemistry behind the formation of these canyons on Titan and speculated that it shares similarities with the creation of Earth’s own canyons, despite possessing entirely different climates and rates of erosion. Further research of the lakes in Titan, even being over a billion kilometers away, may add credibility to the theory that the moon has the potential to be host to alternative forms of life. Though it is only a extremely shallow lake with an average depth of approximately 3.2m, this revolutionary discovery has inspired scientists to conduct further research into the nature of Titan’s methane lakes, making it an ideal candidate for further analysis by the Cassini-Huygens satellite.
Lastly, the presence of a substantial atmosphere on Titan may be a crucial factor in contributing to the formation of life and makes it an even more distinctive target of study for the Cassini-Huygens satellite. Former research delineated how even though Titan’s atmosphere is denser than Earth’s, 98.4% of the atmosphere consists of nitrogen, similar to Earth’s own atmosphere.
Furthermore, recent research that comets are the primary source of this nitrogen, not materials from Saturn. This makes this Titan’s atmosphere even more distinct and a more compelling target of study compared to other moons in the solar system which also happen to have atmospheres. Especially considering that they tend to stabilize temperature and protect organisms from ultraviolet radiation and meteors, additional research should be conducted to further illuminate the many mysteries of Titan’s atmosphere.
Embedded with a unique topography and atmosphere, current research and speculation about Titan’s lakes has proven that it is a worthy target for additional examination. Its geographical similarities with Earth, its existence of methane lakes, and the distinctiveness of its thick atmosphere even when compared to other moons with thinner atmospheres are contributing factors to the possibility of extraterrestrial life existing on Titan, which all make it a particularly captivating target for further exploration.
