Although Titan is often cited as resembling the early Earth, the differences are striking. Temperature is the most obvious, with an average of 95 Kelvin (-178 degrees Celsius), keeping water at the surface firmly frozen. Our planet was tectonically active in its infancy, roiled not only by widespread volcanism but also asteroid impacts, especially during the period known as the Late Heavy Bombardment some 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago. Throw in the fact that the Earth had high concentrations of carbon dioxide -- Titan does not -- and it's clear that we can't make too broad a comparison between the two worlds. What we do have on Titan, however, is an atmosphere that teems with chemical activity, fueled by light from the Sun and the charged particle environment in the moon's orbit around Saturn. So we do have a chemistry here that is capable of turning simple organics into more complex ones. Thus the findings from a new study of archival data using the Atacama Large...
An Astrobiological Role for Titan’s Complex Chemistry?
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