Titanthe largest moon of Saturn as well as of the entire Solar System, under its crust may not have a global ocean of water as thought for almost twenty years, but it could be made up of multiple layers of “soft” ice mixed with liquid waterwith portions of liquid water. This is what NASA declared in a press release, which cites the study just published in the scientific journal Nature and conducted by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). If confirmed, this discovery could significantly change the game with respect to potential habitability underground of one of the most interesting worlds in the Solar System.
As highlighted by the researcher Flavio Petriccafirst author of the study, this is information that «does not preclude Titan’s ability to host basic life formsassuming life can form on Titan.” On the contrary, according to the new analysis, on Titan there would also be “pockets” of liquid water, with temperatures until at 20 °Cpotentially rich in organic molecules coming from the rocky core of the natural satellite.
What the new NASA study reveals: Titan does not have a global underground ocean
In the 2008the probe Cassini from NASA, which has studied the Saturn system for years, collected data on Titan that indicated the presence of a vast ocean of water beneath its surface. New analysis of that data, however, suggested a more complex picture: Titan’s interior is probably composed of icewith layers of mud and small pockets of water kept liquid by the pressure and tidal effect suffered by the Saturnian moon.
What does it mean tidal effect? Basically, as Titan orbits Saturn, it alternates points of greater and lesser distance from the gas giant. The large gravitational field of the planet “crushes” Titan at the poles more when the satellite is closer, less when it is further away. It is the principle on which the tidesbut which acts on the entire celestial body.
What scientists did in this study was analyze the radar data collected by Cassini during the 10 flybys of Titan to reconstruct the dynamics of its deformation at different points of its orbit around Saturn. This analysis led to the conclusion that Titan it deforms too slowly to have an interior composed mainly of liquid water.
The model that best fits the data is that of an interior composed of layerswith a mixture of ice and slush which would allow the moon to warp as observed by Cassini.
What does the new discovery mean: is there the possibility of extraterrestrial life forms?
Since 2008, that is, since Cassini’s first investigations into the internal structure of Titan, this world has been spoken of as potentially habitable given the presence of liquid water inside it. How does this new discovery change things? Relatively little. The absence of a global ocean it does not preclude the possibility of life formseven if – as specified by NASA itself – it’s still too early to speak in this sense.
In short, Titan remains a place of primary interest for the search for possible life in the Solar System. In the past, in fact, the Cassini probe had already revealed the existence on Titan of adense atmosphere rich in nitrogen and hydrocarbonsincluding methane and ethane. These simple organic molecules can form the basis for the synthesis of biomolecules or their precursors.
In short, exactly as with the potential traces of life on Mars – recently announced by NASA -, we will have to have a little patience to find out more. NASA plans to launch the mission in 2028 Dragonfly towards Titan, which will have a seismometer very useful for understanding Titan’s internal structure in more detail.
