www.whyville.net Mar 13, 2005 Weekly Issue



Snickerz9
Science Writer

Titan, the Next Earth?

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I don't know how many Whyvillians watch the TV news or read the newspaper, but this story was a big deal a month or so ago.

Recently, in my science class, we studied the solar system. My teacher spoke quite a bit to us about Saturn's largest moon, Titan. It turns out that scientists all over are very interested in Titan.

Titan has all the chemical components necessary to support life. It has liquid water, and enough gravity and air pressure as well to support some kinds of life that we see on Earth. The only problem is that it's too cold.

Scientists believe that Titan looks very much what Earth looked like millions of years ago. They believe that maybe millions of years in the future, Titan will actually support life.

To me, this is a very creepy thought. I mean, I know we've all heard about alien life in science fiction movies. Martians, outer space aliens and stuff... but this is different. There may some day actually be life on another planet nearby... actually, it's a moon, not a planet, but you get the idea.

I've thought about this quite a bit since my teacher introduced the idea to our class, and it kind of scares me! I mean, think about it! It's not like people from a foreign country, or a species of animal -- this would be a completely different world, with a completely different race of beings. To me, that is amazing!

Imagine it. Millions of years from now, there might be people (or whatever they are) living on Titan, observing Earth and saying, "That's what Titan looked like millions of years ago! We think there used to be life on that planet."

Of course, this may or may not happen -- we don't know for sure. But it's a mind-boggling idea to me.

I hope you all enjoyed my article, and I encourage you to pursue this topic and learn more about Titan.

This is snick, signing off...

 

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