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Related: About this forumSaturn Moon Titan Sports Thick Icy Shell & Bizarre Interior
Source: SPACE.com
Saturn Moon Titan Sports Thick Icy Shell & Bizarre Interior
by Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com Contributor | August 28, 2013 01:01pm ET
The tough icy shell of Saturn's largest moon Titan is apparently far stronger than previously thought, researchers say.
These surprising new findings add to hints Titan possesses an extraordinarily bizarre interior, scientists added.
Past research suggested Titan has an ocean hidden under its outer icy shell 30 to 120 miles (50 to 200 kilometers) thick. Investigators aim to explore this underground ocean in the hopes of finding alien life on Titan, since virtually wherever there is water on Earth, there is life.
To learn more about Titan's icy shell, planetary scientist Doug Hemingway at the University of California, Santa Cruz, analyzed the Cassini probe's scans of Titan's gravity field. The strength of the gravitational pull any point on a surface exerts depends on the amount of mass underneath it. The stronger the pull, the more the mass.
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Read more: http://www.space.com/22570-titan-ice-shell-bizarre-interior.html
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)eShirl
(18,502 posts)occasionally bashing into the ice-sky
ChazInAz
(2,572 posts)No sirens there?