In the course of going around and around, a month has passed, and it has been winter in a blink of an eye, and occasionally Hua Feng and Yunmeng can see the aurora when they go out, which adds a lot of romantic colors to this underground college built in Alaska.

According to a radar photo taken by the Cassini space probe on September 26, 2012, the valley flows through Titan's North Pole and finally flows into the Ligeia Ma Sea in the region

e), with a length of about 400 kilometers, this is the first time that such a large "water system" has been discovered outside the Earth. In addition, because the entire river is dark, scientists have theorized that liquid hydrocarbons may be flowing in the valley.

"Titan is the only star we've discovered other than Earth that has stable liquid material on its surface," said Steve Wall, head of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's radar program. "On Earth, liquid refers to water, while in Titan, liquid is methane, but both have an effect on almost all weather phenomena on the surface of stars. ”

The Cassini probe is part of the Cassini-Huygens mission, a joint project between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency to conduct space explorations of the Saturn system. Launched in 1997, the Cassini probe arrived in 2004 to begin its orbit around Saturn, where it conducted an in-depth study of the planet's surface, its atmosphere, its rings, its moons and its magnetic field. In 2005, Cassini began surveying Titan's surface and atmospheric conditions and sending the collected data back to Earth.

Titan is Saturn's largest moon, about 80% heavier than the Moon, and the only moon known to have a thicker atmosphere.

On January 26, 2015, according to media reports, American astronomers discovered a 1,000-meter-high dormant ice volcano on Titan, surrounded by huge sand dunes and a crater about 1,200 meters deep next to it. This ice volcano is the largest ice volcano ever discovered by scientists on a satellite and has been named "Sot" by astronomers

a”。

It is said that volcanic eruptions occur when lava from the Earth's interior erupts through the Earth's crust. The extreme temperature of the solar system creates a hard layer of ice on Titan, and if there is a continuous high heat in Titan's interior, the ice will become a dense melt of ice, and then it will erupt to form an ice volcanic eruption.

The scientist introduced, "Sot

a" Similar to the eruptions released by ice volcanoes on other moons, they emit large amounts of red-hot melt ice and gas. Methane gas in Titan's atmosphere is broken down by sunlight from a billion miles away, and if there are no resources to replenish it in time, all methane gas will disappear in millions of years. But something like "Sot."

"Ice volcanoes, however, provide a similar resource, releasing gases such as methane and ethane when they erupt. Scientists speculate that every 1,000 years Titan will have something like "Sot."

a" like an ice volcano eruption, which will replenish Titan's atmosphere with methane gas in time. Cork said the discovery could explain why the atmosphere of the outer planet is rich in methane gas.

NASA has announced that the discovery of a subglacial ocean on Enceladus, with a total storage capacity of even more water than Earth, gives us reason to believe that there are even more exotic moons in Saturn's vast constellation.

Titan is a controversial moon, after scientists found traces of wind on Titan, suggesting that there may be waves on the surface of the liquid alkane ocean on Titan, compared to Titan, which is one of the harshest planets in the solar system, although there is no liquid water on Titan, scientists still want to know if there is life in its alkane ocean.

Scientists have found that Titan's atmospheric pressure is 1.5 times that of Earth, but the gravitational environment is relatively weak, and it is indeed a miracle that such a low gravitational force can maintain a thick atmosphere.

According to the Cassini Saturn probe, Titan's atmosphere is suffocating, with 95% nitrogen and 5% methane, so Titan's atmosphere is unbreathable. If you're lucky enough to reach Titan's surface, you probably don't need to wear a pressurized spacesuit, as 1.5 times the atmospheric pressure is closer to Earth's, you just need a breathing mask and a cold-proof spacesuit.

Looking at the sky on the surface of Titan, almost all eyes are full of Saturn's shadow, and about one-third to one-half of the sky is filled with Saturn's figure, which is very sci-fi. Titan's gravitational pull is about 14% of that of the Earth, only slightly weaker than the Moon's gravitational field, and the average surface temperature can reach minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit, or about minus 179 degrees Celsius. Titan is also a tidally locked moon with one side always facing Saturn, which, like our Moon, has only one side facing Earth.

Titan is one of the very few objects in the solar system that has liquid material on the surface, and scientists believe that there may be life in the oceans of liquid hydrocarbons, and researchers at Cornell University have even simulated a life that could survive in Titan's oceans, using methane as an energy source. However, the existence of extraterrestrial life on Titan still needs to be investigated, and if a probe can reach the bottom of Titan's alkane ocean one day, it may be able to confirm whether there is life here.

For the past 30 years, scientists have known a species called Tholi

S) is found in the atmospheres of comets and other planets in the solar system, and it is theorized that Solins could undergo a chemical reaction with water called hydrolysis to create complex molecular structures similar to those of the early stages of the Earth.

On Earth, complex organic molecules are thought to be in the early stages of the emergence of life forms, such as mixtures known as pre-origin life. Titan is Saturn's largest moon, and it is mostly made of icy material. Much of the ice can melt during meteorite collisions or underground activity, creating "ice volcanoes" that eject "magma" that includes a mixture of ammonia and water.

Did Solins, which formed in Titan's atmosphere, form a meteorite collision or a temporary reaction of an ice volcano with liquid water to generate potential pre-life organic molecules before the water freezes? No scientist can accurately explain.

Catherine Nish, a graduate student in the Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona in the United States, spent several days in the lab studying the formation of a Solins-like substance through hydrolysis at near-freezing temperatures. She published the study in the journal Astrobiology.

Liquid water exposed to Titan is thought to persist for hundreds to thousands of years, and reactions like this one that melt into liquid water are a frequent occurrence. It is likely that similar reactions occurred on the early Earth as well.

In the lab, Niš measured the rate of hydrolytic mixing of 5% methane and 95% nitrogen in a low-temperature discharge to form an organic mixture similar to that of Solins, which she melted in water and placed in 40 degrees Celsius water to avoid freezing. The results showed that 10% of the sollins formed an organic mixture, which reacted with oxygen in the water to form complex organic molecules.

When Niš's research was published in a scientific journal, her theories were also criticized. James Ferris, a research professor at the Reisler Institute of Technology who has studied the chemistry of Titan's atmosphere for many years, pointed out that Niš's research was "flawed" because she used the electrical discharge method to form Solins, which is likely to be formed by ultraviolet light and charged radiation particles.

Ferris used ultraviolet light to mix gas from Titan-like atmospheres in an experiment, saying, "The structure of matter formed by the discharge is not the same as that of ultraviolet photolysis, so its hydrolysis time is completely different." Many photochemical processes form hydrocarbons that do not react with water. ”

Niš reacted to this, noting that the release of electrons or plasma meant simulating the interaction of charged particles. She agrees with Ferris's statement that the ultraviolet radiation that forms Solins is more like a mist in Titan's atmosphere. However, she believes that most of the compounds formed in this way do not react with water.

Acknowledging that her work is not ideal for portraying the chemistry of Titan's atmosphere, she says, "Solins formed at low pressure is more like Titan mist than at high pressure, and you can use ultraviolet light to make Solins at low pressure, but you can't use plasma release to make Solins at low pressure." The large amount of sollins needed for our experiments had to be manufactured by electrical discharge technology, and only a small fraction of it could be generated by photodecomposition by ultraviolet light. ”

Niš's study does not provide a complete picture of the chemistry of the planet Titan, which showed that similar chemical reactions can produce significant amounts of organic mixtures in a liquid water environment. On Titan's surface, pre-life-origin molecules may have been found in collision craters and meltwater from ice volcanoes, and processes like this probably occurred in the early days of life on Earth, when significant amounts of oxygen were not present in the Earth's atmosphere in the early days.

Saturn's great moon Titan has a magical surface environment in the solar system, and a world full of liquid methane and hydrocarbons could host interesting life. Astrobiologists and chemists at Cornell University in the United States believe that Titan is in many ways the twin brother of the Earth, Titan is the largest moon in the solar system, larger than Mercury, has a slightly higher atmospheric pressure on the surface than the Earth, and also has an atmosphere. What's more, Titan is the only planet in the solar system other than Earth to have liquid material on the surface, and the Cassini probe discovered lakes and rivers on Titan, and even in the polar regions of Titan, scientists have discovered the largest lakes.

Scientists believe that Titan's liquid methane world may contain strange organisms, such as being able to survive at minus 180 degrees Celsius and using liquid alkanes as an energy source.

This hypothesis is based on the Cassini probe's investigation of Titan, which found that the environment of liquid methane has the potential for strange organisms, and the Cornell team found that the formation of phospholipid molecules is an important step in the emergence of life on Earth, and that Titan's environment contributes to the emergence of phospholipid molecules.

If there is life on Titan, it is almost certainly a cell with a cell membrane, Cassini spacecraft data found that there are very complex chemical reactions in Titan's atmosphere, acrylonitrile may be the basic substance in the cell membrane of Titan's life, and the laboratory has been able to simulate the production of such substances in the environment of Titan. Therefore, the acrylonitrile membrane may be the cell membrane structure of Titan's life, and the results of computational chemistry show that it can adapt to the environment on Titan. To further prove the existence of life on Titan, we should send a probe to Titan's methane ocean, which is perhaps the most direct way to prove it.