Titan and the primordial “soup”
The Cassini-Huygens probe, a project in which ESA and NASA collaborated, left in 1997 heading for Saturn, one of the giants of the external Solar System. After a journey of seven long years, finally it reached its destination, Saturn – Lord of the rings, on first July 2004. The mission consisted in entering Saturn’s orbit and releasing, on 25 December of the same year, the Huygens module, which would have descended on the surface of the satellite Titan with the help of a parachute.
Why Titan? Titan is Saturn’s largest satellite, and in fact it is the only moon of the Solar System that has an atmosphere and scientists believe it is very similar to that of the Earth, before life appeared. Below the atmosphere it is believed that there are oceans of liquid methane and ethane, under a frozen surface.
Titan is the esobiological site par-excellence, of the entire Solar System. A small miniature Earth at the time the first organic molecules appeared, that became the precursors of life on our planet.
In fact the external part of the Solar System, where also Saturn and its satellites are to be found, is the most ancient part of the Solar System and has maintained most of its initial conditions, following the formation of the Sun and the planets. The internal part instead is inhabited by smaller planets, with higher temperatures, whose atmospheres have cancelled many traces of the primordial evolutive phase, preventing us from understanding the chemical and physical course that led to the appearance of life. In the external part of the Solar System, where temperatures are remarkably lower, it is possible to follow these processes directly, as if we were taking a trip back in time, to the beginning of the history of the Earth.
Special reports
-
14 April 2022
From the Moon to Jupiter via Mars: Space exploration in 2022
The year 2022 will also be full of new space missions: from the Moon to Mars, to the moons of…
20 March 2022
Spring is back
While the temperatures of the last days of winter and the first shoots and buds on the trees had already…
22 January 2021
Are we children of stock cubes?
In primary school, we learned that life began in the "primordial soup", that is, in the warm ocean that covered…
-
20 December 2020
Twinkle twinkle little star
The Star of the Magi competes with the Angel for the place of honour on the ridge-pole of the stable.…
13 December 2020
St. Lucy’s night: a night of shooting stars
In Italy, St. Lucy’s night is known traditionally as “the shortest night of the year”, but due to the passage…
27 October 2020
Wet moon, lucky moon
On Monday 26 October 2020, NASA revealed a sensational discovery about our Moon: there is definitely water, also on its…
-
2 October 2020
The Sun is heating up again: a new solar cycle is beginning
Summer has just ended but the sun has yet to start to "warm up". Our star is a huge furnace…
16 September 2020
Is there life on Venus?
We call them "Martians" because, in science fiction, Mars has always been the natural home of extraterrestrials. In fact, of…
29 August 2019
The Fermi paradox
In our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are over 100 billion stars. Around us, we have discovered 100 billion more…
-
14 April 2022
From the Moon to Jupiter via Mars: Space exploration in 2022
The year 2022 will also be full of new space missions: from the Moon to Mars, to the moons of…
20 March 2022
Spring is back
While the temperatures of the last days of winter and the first shoots and buds on the trees had already…
-
22 January 2021
Are we children of stock cubes?
In primary school, we learned that life began in the "primordial soup", that is, in the warm ocean that covered…
20 December 2020
Twinkle twinkle little star
The Star of the Magi competes with the Angel for the place of honour on the ridge-pole of the stable.…
-
13 December 2020
St. Lucy’s night: a night of shooting stars
In Italy, St. Lucy’s night is known traditionally as “the shortest night of the year”, but due to the passage…
27 October 2020
Wet moon, lucky moon
On Monday 26 October 2020, NASA revealed a sensational discovery about our Moon: there is definitely water, also on its…
-
14 April 2022
From the Moon to Jupiter via Mars: Space exploration in 2022
The year 2022 will also be full of new space missions: from the Moon to Mars, to the moons of…
-
20 March 2022
Spring is back
While the temperatures of the last days of winter and the first shoots and buds on the trees had already…
-
22 January 2021
Are we children of stock cubes?
In primary school, we learned that life began in the "primordial soup", that is, in the warm ocean that covered…
From the Multimedia section
Facts
-
The comet’s tail
Comets are “dirty snowballs” that spend most of their life at the edges of the Solar System...
The definition of a dwarf planet
Astronomy, like all scientific disciplines, is continuously evolving...
-
The cosmic microwave background radiation
In 1965, while studying the ground noise of a radio antenna...
Cosmic collision
When two galaxies start to approach, the tidal attraction forces deform their structures...
-
The comet’s tail
Comets are “dirty snowballs” that spend most of their life at the edges of the Solar System...
-
The definition of a dwarf planet
Astronomy, like all scientific disciplines, is continuously evolving...
-
The comet’s tail
Comets are “dirty snowballs” that spend most of their life at the edges of the Solar System...
-
The definition of a dwarf planet
Astronomy, like all scientific disciplines, is continuously evolving...