Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a strange, alien world.
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a strange, alien world. Covered in rivers and lakes of liquid methane, icy boulders and dunes of soot-like "sand," its topography has long fascinated scientists and invited speculation on whether lifeforms might lurk beneath the moon's thick, hazy atmosphere.
An international team of researchers co-led by Antonin Affholder at the U of A Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Peter Higgins at Harvard University's Department of Earth and Planetary sciences set out to develop a realistic scenario of what life on Titan might look like if it does exist, where it is most likely to occur and how much of it might be present.
"In our study, we focus on what makes Titan unique when compared to other icy moons: its plentiful organic content," said Affholder, who is a postdoctoral research associate.
Using bioenergetic modeling, the team found that Titan's subsurface ocean, estimated to be as deep as about 300 miles, may support lifeforms that consume organic material. Published in The Planetary Science Journal, their study concludes that while Titan could possibly harbor simple, microscopic life, it likely could support only a few pounds of biomass overall.
Read more at University of Arizona
Image: This artist's concept of a lake at the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan illustrates raised rims and rampartlike features as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
