Gadgetory

hey everyone this is Greg with science studios and minute science did you know that there is a a moon actually in our solar system that is a lot like Earth and more ways than one now this moon is actually a fairly big moon when you compare it to like our moon orbiting Earth this moon is twice the size of our moon and it also has an atmosphere it's actually the only moon in the solar system that we know of that has an atmosphere if you haven't figured it out by now the moon is tighten and tighten orbits Saturn Titan has some very unique characteristics Cassini made its first official Saturn flyby in 2004 and it around the same time that the probe was taking pictures of Saturn Titan Saturn's largest moon was catching the satellites I for more than one reason the first and most obvious reason is the fact that Titan has this there's a glow it it's just hazy and no other moon in the solar system has this kind of haze like these clouds cover its surface only planets you're supposed to have those things right I mean a moon doesn't have enough gravity to pull gas around it sound like whoa what's going on here further investigation led to the discovery that Titan actually has liquid on its surface it's actually the only other object that we know of that has liquid on its surface and the Mars discovery that happened recently I want to see video proof of that okay we actually dropped a probe on Titan and found liquid methane so yeah that's actually what the liquid was on the moon was methane but it was so cold and tighten at the methane which is normally gas here was a liquid and is still a liquid on Titan another characteristic of Titan that makes it very unique in much like Earth is the fact that Titan actually has active tectonic plates if you remember from one of our previous minute science episodes we talked about tectonic plates and how those on earth are constant moving back and forth they're sharing each other pushing against each other and pulling apart from each other well the same processes are actually happening on titan but for a different reason so titan doesn't have a very hot radioactive center not like earth does very heavy radioactive elements didn't make it that far out into the solar system when our star was first born what Titan has the earth doesn't have though is a large partner in this case Saturn and as Titan orbits this planet Saturn's gravitational pull basically churns all the rock that's inside of the moon and this creates a lot of heat a lot of friction is generated a call from one of our other mid science episodes and that heat basically moves these rocks all around eventually these rock faces basically led to the creation of tectonic plates there was so much friction in the moon that rock face is actually crystallized and formed solid plates so Titan has many oceans sounds a lot like Earth and Titan has active tectonic plates like Earth these are the only two places that we know of that have active oceans and active tectonic plates but perhaps the most obvious trait of them all that makes Titan so similar to earth is the fact that Titan has a very dense atmosphere but it's the composition of the atmosphere that makes it so like Earth in Earth's case nitrogen composes about seventy eight percent of its atmosphere but in Titans case nitrogen composes ninety-eight percent of its atmosphere the remaining gases being hydrogen and methane now obviously this atmosphere is not conducive to life as we know it but that doesn't mean that life on Titan couldn't have formed under different conditions life here on earth generally respirate seeeeee oxygen but life on Titan could utilize methane maybe even hydrogen it's possible we don't know if it actually is the case but it's possible the cool thing about science is you really can't come to absolute conclusions until you've analyzed everything about what you're studying and the thing about space is it's huge so we'll never be able to fully accept the fact that we're alone or maybe that were not until we've discovered every planet that there is to discover and I guess in this case every moon there is a Discoverer to guarantee that life doesn't exist or does look all I'm saying is that if a moon in our solar system has an atmosphere and lakes and rivers and streams and geysers and tectonic plates and a dense atmosphere what are the odds that just other moons out there are possibly able to support life for all we know there could be planets out there made of cheese and the other planets made of like sugar or something we don't know and until we discover or probably in this case don't discover planets made of cheese and sugar we can't say for certain that they don't exist and that's the beauty of science in particular that's the beauty of astronomy this is science studio thanks for learning with