Titan is the only world besides Earth known to have stable liquid on its surface. But Titan's lakes and rivers flow with liquid methane and ethane, not water, creating an eerily Earth-like landscape under completely alien conditions.
A Familiar Strangeness
Titan has rain, clouds, seasons, and a thick atmosphere—but at -290 degrees Fahrenheit, water is frozen harder than rock. Liquid hydrocarbons take water's role, carving river valleys and collecting in vast lakes near the poles.
Potential for Life
Could life exist in methane seas? It would be radically different from Earth life, using different chemistry entirely. Some scientists have proposed theoretical metabolisms that could work in these conditions.
NASA has approved a mission called Dragonfly that will send a drone to explore Titan in the 2030s, hopping between locations to study this alien world up close.
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