Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Titan’s Layered Atmosphere is Surprisingly Earth-Like

Titan’s Layered Atmosphere is Surprisingly Earth-Like:

Titan's thick, smog-like upper atmosphere obscures our view of the lower atmosphere and surface. The much smaller moon Enceladus is also seen in this image. Credit: NASA/JPL

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is in some ways the most Earth-like world in the solar system, with a thick nitrogen atmosphere, rain, rivers, lakes and seas. Albeit it is much colder, and liquid methane/ethane takes the place of water, but the hydrological processes are quite similar to those here. There may, however, also be a liquid water-ammonia ocean below the surface. Now, new research suggests that Titan is Earth-like in another way as well, with a layered lower atmosphere similar to ours.

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