Liquid Found On Saturn
The liquid found on Saturn’s moon, Titan represents one of the most exciting and crucial discoveries in a hundred years, since except for Earth, this is the only other solar body with liquid on the surface in the system. NASA’s press release informed the public that the open lake structures consisted of liquid hydrocarbons like ethane. Cassini spacecraft was the probe to send hundreds of pictures of Saturn and its satellites in its forty close flybys in the area. According to theories there could be large open liquid surfaces of methane, ethane and various other hydrocarbons; the dark color of the liquid found on Saturn’s moon could only point to these components of crude oil. Nevertheless, the liquid form was not confirmed until a probe got on Titan in January 2005.
The depth of these pools or lakes of liquid discovered on Saturn’s satellite could be a few or hundreds of feet deep. Infrared scanning by Cassini spacecraft allowed an approximation of the features. However, the main question remains as whether this planet can support life or not. Another Saturn moon, Enceladus, revealed cold water geysers issuing from liquid reservoirs lying a little below the frozen soil. Could such discoveries start a new era in the space mission programs? Though life is difficult to imagine in the unfavorable weather of this cold world, just a few feet under the soil of Enceladus, all the discoveries indicate that life is more than possible.
Consequently the liquid found on Saturn’s Enceladus set the course for new investigations for life in the solar system. Plus, the other prerequisite for life existence on Enceladus, organic materials, is also met: there is methane, ethane, carbon dioxide and several others. Last but not least, near the thermal vents, deep down in Saturn’s center, the temperature could also create a favorable background for the evolution of life forms.
The liquid found on Saturn’s moons represents the most exciting discovery in the last twenty five years, since the moment when volcanic activity was identified on one of Jupiter’s satellites. Though the source of the water geysers could not be spotted by the camera of the spacecraft the water and ice sprays were very visible in the sunlight, in the polar region of Enceladus. The same warm-icy model in the structure of comets applies to this liquid found on Saturn’s satellite, Enceladus, since the geysers were identified as a combination of ice and hot water vapors. Then, the only reasonable conclusion is that water does exist beneath the soil of Enceladus!
Related Posts
Fatal error: Call to undefined function related_posts() in /home/getridof/public_html/wp-content/themes/default/single.php on line 34