NASA discovered a bizarre ice structure on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon Titan – fuelling theories of alien life. Titan is the only other place in the Solar System that has liquid rain similar to Earth. Researchers admit they are “puzzled” by the latest discovery and are struggling to explain the structure.
The mysterious ice formation stretches nearly halfway across its massive surface.
Scientists claim more research is urgently needed to discover what exactly caused the uncovered ice on Titan’s surface.
Jani Radebaugh, a planetary scientist at Brigham Young University, said: “What we’re curious about is, beyond that global gentle snowfall of organics, what’s happening?
“It can be really hard to see through that layer to be able to see what’s going on.”
Titan, which is 50 percent larger than Earth’s Moon, has an atmosphere that’s rich in nitrogen and contains methane, hydrogen and other gases.
NASA engineer acknowledged earlier this year that Titan would be “an awesome place to live” if humans had to evacuate Earth.
However, Titan has often proved difficult to study as its shrouded in dense haze and thick rain
Scientists have porposed that the ice structure could be evidence of ancient volcanic activity.
According to the Univeristy of Arizona researchers, the ice block was likely created by cryo-volcanoes which erupted water and ice
The ice corridor described as “ribbons of ice,” basically covers 40 percent of the moon’s diameter.
University of Arizona researcher Caitlin Griffith said: “This icy corridor is puzzling, because it doesn’t correlate with any surface features nor measurements of the subsurface.”
They also point out that the only other areas of Titan that have lots of exposed bedrock ice are spots “excavated by craters or exposed by erosion”.