Saturn’s Moon Titan Has Flowing Methane Rivers – So Where Are the Deltas?

Why We Might Not Find Life on Titan

If there’s any life on Saturn’s moon Titan, then there’s probably not very much. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Astrobiologists have been hopeful that Titan hosted life ever since scientists detected signs there of a subsurface ocean layer during the Voyager fly-bys of Saturn in the 1980s. The possibility was further supported by data gathered during the Cassini mission, the NASA space probe that explored t…

Scientists Reveal Titan Might Support Life, Just Barely

If there's life in the solar system beyond Earth, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, seems a logical place to find it. A new study says maybe, but in tiny amounts.

Scientists confused by missing coastal features on Titan, Saturn's largest moon

Scientists have long known that Saturn's largest moon, Titan, hosts rivers and seas of liquid methane. But it's strangely lacking in river deltas, a new study suggests.

Saturn’s Moon Titan Has Flowing Methane Rivers – So Where Are the Deltas?

Despite its Earth-like rivers and lakes of liquid methane, Saturn’s moon Titan seems oddly lacking in river deltas — geological formations that are typically rich in historical clues. Using data from the Cassini spacecraft and simulations based on Earth’s landscapes, researchers expected to find deltas at the mouths of Titan’s rivers. Instead, they found almost [...]

Saturn's moon could have life, but only a little bit

Saturn’s moon Titan could harbor life, but only a tiny amount, a new study finds. Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is a strange, alien world. Covered in rivers and lakes of liquid methane, icy boulders, and dunes of soot-like “sand,” its topography has long fascinated scientists and invited speculation on whether lifeforms might lurk beneath the moon’s thick, hazy atmosphere. An international team of researchers co-led by Antonin Affholder at the U…

A new investigation has confirmed that despite the great rivers and seas of liquid methane, Titan, Saturn’s moon, lacks river deltas, which raises an enigma about its surface dynamics. “We assume that if there are rivers and sediments, deltas are obtained,” said Sam Birch, an assistant professor at the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown University, who directed the work. “But Titan is peculiar. It is a playground …