spacetoday.net: Titan may have underground ocean

Titan may have underground ocean

Posted: Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 10:32 AM ET (1432 GMT)
Titan interior illustration (NASA/JPL)

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, may have an ocean of water and ammonia under its surface, planetary scientists reported this week. The evidence for the subsurface ocean, published in the latest issue of the journal Science, comes from observations of the moon's rotation made by the Cassini spacecraft. Measurements of the locations of key landmarks on the moon's surface shifted from their expected positions by as much as 30 kilometers, suggesting that Titan's crust is decoupled from its core by n ocean about 100 kilometers below the surface. That ocean, coupled with the presence of organic compounds known to exist on the moon, makes it a potential habitat for life, much like the subsurface ocean thought to exist on Jupiter's moon Europa.