Is Their Life On Titan?

NASA just announced their new mission to study the organic resource-rich world of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, which is also the second biggest moon in the solar system. This planet features similar natural resources that are found on Earth such as liquid underground that flows downs rivers into lakes and seas.

Unlike Earth’s water-based hydrological cycle, Titan naturally has a hydrocarbon cycle producing rain with methane and ethane. Titan also experiences such cold weather that water is frozen and is hard enough to form bedrock. The atmosphere, like Earth, is primarily nitrogen but also presents methane and ethane that produces a dense hydrocarbon haze around the stratosphere that can be destroyed by sunlight.

This atmosphere is similar to the Earth’s as believed by early astronomers, which scientist can find clues on how life formed on Earth. The new mission is Dragonfly and will involve the deployment of an autonomous drone that will fly around Titan to sample and examine sites.

Dragonfly plans on launching in 2026 and should arrive in the system of Titan by 2034 and will mark the first time NASA will fly a multi-rotor vehicle for studying another possible world. For more on the new project, check out the video above.