Storms of Saturn's Moon Titan - A Model of the Early Earth?

NASA's Cassini spacecraft buzzed Titan last year, coming close enough to taste the Saturnian moon's atmosphere.  The data acquired has implications for our understanding of life throughout the galaxy, as well as Earth's own past.

Meanwhile, just this month astronomers used the NSF-supported Gemini Observatory to capture the first images of clouds over Titan's tropics. The images clarify a long-standing mystery linking Titan's weather and surface features, viewed by some scientists as an analog to Earth when our planet was young.

The effort also served as the latest demonstration of adaptive optics, which use deformable mirrors to enable NSF's suite of ground-based telescopes to capture images that in some cases exceed the resolution of images captured by space-based counterparts.

On Titan, clouds of light hydrocarbons, not water, occasionally emerge in the frigid, dense atmosphere, mainly clustering near the poles, where they feed scattered methane lakes below. Closer to the moon's equator, clouds are rare, and the surface is more similar to an arid, wind-swept terrain on Earth. Observations by space probes suggest evidence for liquid-carved terrain in the tropics, but the cause has been a mystery.

Emily Schaller from the University of Hawaii and her colleagues used NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility, situated on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, to monitor Titan on 138 nights over a period of two years, and on April 13, 2008, the team saw a tell-tale brightening. The researchers then turned to the NSF-supported Gemini North telescope, an 8-meter telescope also located on Mauna Kea, to capture the extremely high-resolution infrared snapshots of Titan's cloud cover, including the first storms ever observed in the moon's tropics.

The team suggests that the storms may yield precipitation capable of feeding the apparently liquid-carved channels on the planet's surface, and also influenced weather patterns throughout the moon's atmosphere for several weeks.

The second largest moon in the solar system, Titan has long been of interest for hopeful exobiologists.  As the only other body we know of with surface bodies of liquid, complete with nitrogen, methane and complete seasonal weather weather patterns (similar to Earth's).  It even has beaches, though you'll need a little more than a swimsuit to visit.  Vast bodies of chemicals constantly stirred by wind and wave, heated over a gentle sunlight heat with the occasional dash of articles from Saturn's magnetosphere for spice - a perfect recipe for life. Just like a certain planet you might be familiar with (look down if you forget).

Of course there a few minor differences from our own blue-green globe. There's no oxygen for one thing, but if you think that's a problem then you're guilty of "aerobic respiration prejudice" (don't worry, most multicellular organisms are).  It's also really quite amazingly cold - so cold that it has awesomely-named "cryovolcanoes", where boiled (or even just melted) water is enough to set off seismic-level explosions. Again, that's a barrier that's been overcome by homegrown Earth bacteria, so there's no reason it couldn't be managed elsewhere.

Cassini's onboard instruments have detected hydrocarbons containing up to seven carbon atoms.  How important is that for life?  Here's a hint: molecules with carbon in them are called organic, and those without are inorganic.  Carbon is kind of a big deal, and the more (and more complicated) carbon compounds present the further towards the great cosmic chemical cocktail that is "life" you are.  Some scientists believe that the Titanian interior, with its greater temperature, could already host microbial life - but it'll be a while before we can check that (unless we get real lucky, and some alien cells get real unlucky, with a cryovolcano eruption).  One thing's for sure - the craft is only on the sixth of forty-five planned flybys so we can expect to hear a lot more about this real soon.

PS: Yes, it is ironic that we're expecting Titanic lifeforms to be single celled.

Posted by Luke McKinney. Photo Credit: James Estrin/New York Times.

Related Galaxy posts:

"The Earth Strain" -Spreading Life To The Stars (whether we want to or not)
MIT Asks: How Would Extraterrestrial Astronomers Study Earth?
"The Great Silence" -A Galaxy Insight
Harvard-Smithsonian Scientists Zero In On Key Sign of Habitable Worlds
Cruising the Goldilocks Zone -The Search for Super Earths
Dead Zones in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
  Non-Carbon Lifeforms -Why We May Overlook  

Source links:

Cassini flyby http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16737
The Cassini Mission Home http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html

Of course there a few minor differences from our own blue-green globe. There's no oxygen for one thing, but if you think that's a problem then you're guilty of "aerobic respiration prejudice" (don't worry, most multicellular organisms are).  It's also really quite amazingly cold - so cold that it has awesomely-named "cryovolcanoes", where boiled (or even just melted) water is enough to set off seismic-level explosions. Again, that's a barrier that's been overcome by homegrown Earth bacteria, so there's no reason it couldn't be managed elsewhere.

Cassini's onboard instruments have detected hydrocarbons containing up to seven carbon atoms.  How important is that for life?  Here's a hint: molecules with carbon in them are called organic, and those without are inorganic.  Carbon is kind of a big deal, and the more (and more complicated) carbon compounds present the further towards the great cosmic chemical cocktail that is "life" you are.  Some scientists believe that the Titanian interior, with its greater temperature, could already host microbial life - but it'll be a while before we can check that (unless we get real lucky, and some alien cells get real unlucky, with a cryovolcano eruption).  One thing's for sure - the craft is only on the sixth of forty-five planned flybys so we can expect to hear a lot more about this real soon.

PS: Yes, it is ironic that we're expecting Titanic lifeforms to be single celled.

Posted by Luke McKinney. Photo Credit: James Estrin/New York Times.

Related Galaxy posts:

"The Earth Strain" -Spreading Life To The Stars (whether we want to or not)
MIT Asks: How Would Extraterrestrial Astronomers Study Earth?
"The Great Silence" -A Galaxy Insight
Harvard-Smithsonian Scientists Zero In On Key Sign of Habitable Worlds
Cruising the Goldilocks Zone -The Search for Super Earths
Dead Zones in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
  Non-Carbon Lifeforms -Why We May Overlook  

Source links:

Cassini flyby http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16737
The Cassini Mission Home http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html

Comments

[claudio]

I am fully appreciative of the 'reasons' that have driven NASA and ESA to start the Huygens-Cassini adventure.

After the pass-by of Voyager and the wonderfull pictures of Titan , nobody could figure out why this Saturn moon had an Atmosphere.

However scientists NOW must stop dreaming , tantalizing with strange theories and bothering us with this stupid theory of Titan resembling the early days of planet Earth.

Earth was very hot in the old days and when it cooled down oceans of water (H2O) were formed...likely naturally.

The distance from the main star (the sun) would suggest that earth was never as cold as Titan (about -185°C measured by Huygens)and the light received on earth from the sun(remarkable) has probably helped (together with the abundance of water and warm climate) the formation of life.

The sun seen from Saturn (and Titan ) is as small as a tennis ball....in a dark sky.

Then What these 'so called scientists' are talking about Titan resembling the earth on the old days ?????

Why so many articles on this subject ??????

What is the true matter with Titan , Cassini and Huygens ??

Advertising the mission Cassini-Huygens ?? A self justification for having spent an incredible amount of money to discover an iced moon plenty of gases (e.g. methane and ammonia) that impede the formation of ICE ?????

What and were is the wonder ??? NONE...NOWHERE.

Regards to Europa and Eceladus : much more interesting moons.

[PlantEater]

I believe that there are unknown moons or planets out there that are earth like and could be breeding organic life. Maybe not in our own solar system. Being that there are billions of galaxies, I have hopes that one day we will be able to travel quickly to distances unknown and make great discoveries. A great discovery to me would also be confirming that we are so unique in the universe that by chance we were lucky enough to exist. Without any other trace of life...

Does it have to be an earth like planet to have life? Maybe there are other planets out there that we are overlooking because we think life cannot exist in conditions un-Earth like. Un-Organic organisms.

[EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville]

It does look really promising for Titan, Europa, perhaps Enceladus..... & despite what I've said in the recent past, I wouldn't even count Mars out just yet.

The most unlikely places are where we might find extra - terrestrial life in the solar system. Whether or not it's intelligent, capable of communication, etc., is something else.