Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Sunrise Over Titan

This is a picture of sunlight glinting off the liquid surface of Titan. Titan is one of Saturn's moons and the only other place in the universe that we are SURE has oceans on its surface. They're hydrocarbon oceans, and they're very very cold, but they're liquid alright.

Anybody want to go there? I'd love for a biochemist to travel to Titan, it would only take a few years. Ok, maybe a decade. And there would be no feasible way to return. If life could happen that looks very different from water-based life on earth, it still almost certainly would have to take place in a liquid environment, and Titan provides that. My hunch is that even simple life could not exist on Titan, but I'm not sure. Who wants to go take a look?

1 comment:

Deanna said...

Sana wants to be an astronaut, so I'd bet she'd volunteer! And sometimes I think I'd be okay with her not being around for a few years - maybe during adolescence? Wait, did I just write that? ;)