NASA scientists have tons of telescopes and the top-of-the-line imaging technologies at their disposals, but we hardly ever get to see what they see. Recently, NASA gave us a little glimpse by creating a topographical map of Titan, which is the largest moon around Saturn.
How’d they map something they’ve never even set a drone onto? They used the Cassini-Huygens, a robotic spacecraft sent to Saturn to study the planet and its moons, over the course of nine years to get all the data they needed. The reason this is such a monumental accomplishment, other than the fact that it took a lot of time and effort, is because it could’ve very well lead us to understand the early stages of life’s evolution process.
While Titan may be a moon, it’s much larger than ours. So large in fact, it has its own atmosphere. That atmosphere is a lot like ours – largely made up of nitrogen. However, the rest of the air and atmosphere is made up of carbon and other organic materials.
If the materials for life are there, who’s to say life isn’t already there? I think it’s time to land Cassini and see if the Martians moved to Saturn.
Source – Engadget
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