Titan lacks these three chemicals, and so a cell membrane on Titan would need to be composed of other chemicals. Every cell on Earth contains a permeable membrane made of water, oxygen, and phosphorus. In order to determine if life requires liquid water, scientists would need to show that cell membranes can form and exist without liquid water. The presence of liquid on Titan’s surface raises an interesting question: could life exist on Titan?Īlternative Cell Membranes Radar-produced Image of a Methane Sea on Titan's Surface, NASA Titan is the only other world in the solar system where it rains. On Titan, the seas are filled with liquid hydrocarbons. Instead, the frigid temperatures on Titan allow methane and ethane to condense into liquid form. However, unlike on Earth, these liquid bodies do not contain water. Radar views of the surface, along with a successful probe that landed on the surface in 2005, have revealed a surface remarkably similar to the Earth’s, with evidence confirming that Titan is home to lakes, seas, and rivers. Titan’s atmosphere is only one aspect that makes this moon so interesting. Surface temperatures on Titan average at minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 180 degrees Celsius), so the hydrocarbons in Titan’s atmosphere become so dense that they stick to Titan, maintaining its atmosphere for billions of years. Titan’s atmosphere is primarily composed of methane and ethane, which happen to be pretty dense hydrocarbons. Titan, however, has an atmosphere thicker than Earth’s, despite being only a fraction of the mass. Moons have low gravity due to their small mass, so they generally cannot hold onto much of an atmosphere. Dense atmospheres are rare for moons, and so the atmosphere of Titan is rather strange. Unlike every other moon in the solar system, Titan is blanketed in a dense atmosphere that is even denser than Earth’s. Titan is among the most unique and intriguing moons in the solar system.
Having a diameter of 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers), Titan is even larger than the planet Mercury. Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second-largest moon in the solar system.
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