(U-Wire) The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has discovered significant evidence that an ocean may lay underneath the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, according to a report in Science.
They found that several points on the surface had drifted over time. Those motions are caused by winds that arise in Titan’s disproportionately large atmosphere.
The researchers argue that an ocean of water separates the moon’s inner core and outer solid layers, allowing the continents to float around. A research team led by Ralph Lorenz has analyzed data from several years of the European Cassini-Huygens mission.
The scientists measured variations in the length of the day on Titan. They reasoned that if a liquid ocean were present, it would cause detectable variations in the day.
The length of day on our planet varies by only about one millisecond.
The daily shifts on Titan that were measured in the past few years, though, cannot be explained by the usual fluctuations because they are too large.
Unless the winds on Titan have grown considerably stronger, the surface would not move so fast. The only theory that explains this finding is an ocean separating the moon’s core and surface.
Ralph Lorenz and his research team are still unsure what substance makes up the potential ocean. Hydrocarbons are possible and would go with the discovery of oil lakes on Titan’s surface, which was reported in the January issue of the Geophysical Research Letters. The presence of water, though, could hint at the possible existence of life.
Titan offers a surprising number of similarities to Earth. Titan is particularly helpful here because its present condition resembles the Earth a few million years ago.
The study of its geological and volcanic activities and the cycles with which organic molecules are being manipulated could answer further questions how life developed on Earth – and could one day develop on Titan.
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