Introduction
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second-largest moon of the solar system after the Ganymede of Jupiter. With a diameter of 5149 km and a distance of 878 million miles from the earth, titan orbits the Saturn at a distance of 20 Saturn diameters and it is 1.04 times bigger than our planet Mercury. Many explorations were made to study Saturn, its rings, and moons like Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, and 2 which observed titan from the orbit and made some impeccable discoveries. They proved its mass and diameter and discovered that titan has a dense atmosphere mostly filled with nitrogen like earth. But the most prominent exploration is the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft which made 127 close observations of titan while orbiting Saturn for 13 years.
Atmosphere and Surface conditions
Since the Titan is tidally locked with the Saturn, it’s one face is always pointed towards the Saturn during its orbital motion and it takes 15.5 days to complete one orbit around Saturn. As the mass of the titan is lower than that of earth, its surface gravity is less and therefore has an extended atmosphere ranging up to 300-600km from the surface. Cassini launched Huygens probe into the titan and the probe detected hazy clouds over the outer atmosphere which block and the inner atmosphere contains 95% nitrogen and 5% organic hydrocarbons. The pressure on titan will be 50% more than that of the earth and temperature is freezing -179 degrees centigrade. Huygens probe detected water ice on the surface of Titan and it consists of organic hydrocarbons like methane and ethane which forms lakes and rivers and constitute a liquid surface. Titan is the only celestial body other than earth which is discovered to have liquidity on its surface. The subsurface is filled with a salty water ocean mainly composed of water and amounts of methane and ethane. Titan has active volcanoes where liquid water organics is ejected instead of molten rock. Titan has methane and ethane cycle similar to that of the water cycle here on the earth.
Origin of Life
As the titan contains a dense atmosphere like the earth and the abundance of nitrogen in the atmosphere, it has similar earth-like characteristics. The titan is the second known object to have a liquid surface filled with organic hydrocarbon lakes and rivers and an underground ocean of salty water organics which surely is a positive indication of the possibility of life. On earth, life evolved due to the presence of an atmosphere rich with nitrogen and water bodies. Our body is mainly composed of nitrogen and water. So, we can see the possibility of life on the second-largest moon in our solar system. Titan also has methane and ethane cycle similar to that of the earth’s water cycle which indicates a possibility of weather.
Terraforming Titan
Terraforming a celestial body is the hypothetical process of making the body habitable and hospitable by altering its surface conditions like temperature and pressure and making earth-like conditions supporting human life. Titan is the largest moon orbiting Saturn and surface pressure is 1.50 atm. Therefore human being living on titan does not need a pressurized space suit to survive on titan. He just needs to wear an oxygen mask to breathe and a suit for protection from titans freezing temperature. As the surface consists of organic hydrocarbons, it can support the growth of microorganisms; the first possible form of life on the titan. Human beings can survive in that world by extracting water from the underground ocean of saltwater. The main problem inhibiting the possibility of human life is the freezing temperatures of the surface which is -179 degrees centigrade. the main reason for this extreme cold temperature is the hazy clouds in the upper atmosphere which is mainly filled with hydrogen cyanide in condensed form. These clouds are mainly concentrated in the southern pole. The hazy clouds are powered up by absorbing ultra-violet rays from the sun. This cloudy layer is inhibiting the sun’s heat from reaching the surface. I would suggest a hypothetical ozone bomb that is to be diffused into the upper layers of the mesosphere. Then the ozone gas occupies the upper layers of the atmosphere and blocks the Ultraviolet rays to enter the atmosphere. So, the hazy clouds won’t get enough Ultraviolet rays, and gradually, these clouds fade off and the surface temperature increases which is the process of terraforming and make humans survive on the titan.
Conclusion
By terraforming the titan, we can get a natural laboratory in the form of titan which we can use to study the formation of the earth and the origin and evolution of life on the earth as the titan is having a primordial earth-like atmosphere and possible habitable conditions with the presence of liquid hydrocarbons.
Comments