Titan Shaping Up to Look a Lot Like Pre-Life Earth

An artist's imagination of hydrocarbon pools, icy and rocky terrain on the surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan. Image credit: Steven Hobbs (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)

It's more than a billion kilometers (759 million miles) away, but the more astronomers learn about Titan, the more it looks like Earth.

That's the theme of two talks happening this week at the International Astronomical Union meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Two NASA researchers, Rosaly Lopes and Robert M. Nelson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are reporting that weather and geology have very similar actions on Earth and Titan — even though Saturn's moon is, on average, 100 degrees C (212 degrees F) colder than Antarctica (and certainly much more frigid than either California or Brazil; lucky astronomers).

The researchers are also reporting a tantalizing clue in the search for life: Titan hosts chemistry much like pre-biotic conditions on Earth.

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Read the rest of Titan Shaping Up to Look a Lot Like Pre-Life Earth (567 words)

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