An Ocean of Liquid Water beneath the surface of Titan!

Again Titan, amaze! Not only seas and lakes of methane on the surface but also an huge ocean of liquid water beneath! An extraordinary discovery from Italian Scientist that cast new light and new questions on what we really know on our Solar System and on Extraterrestrial life.
www.ansa.it...
www.nature.com...

There is an ocean of liquid water beneath the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The discovery, announced in Science, is due to an international research team led by Luciano IESS, University La Sapienza of Rome. The study involved three other Italians Marco and Paolo Ducci Racioppa, University La Sapienza, and Paul Tortora, University of Bologna. Titan never ceased to amaze when, in January 2005, the European probe Huygens descended on its surface to Earth by sending extraordinary images of mountains and rivers of methane. To release the Huygens probe was Cassini, the mission was born from a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Italian Space Agency (Asi). [...] The Cassini data show instead that the deformation reaches a height of 10 meters, "a clear indication - underline the Asi and La Sapienza in a statement - that Titan is not composed entirely of ice and rock-solid". For IESS "the discovery of such great magnitude of tides on Titan leads to the inescapable conclusion that there must be a hidden ocean deep." The presence of the ocean helps explain why the atmosphere of Titan is so rich in methane (about 4%). "An ocean - explains IESS - can act as a reserve in depth, releasing methane dissolved in it, which migrates upward through the crust." But it is above all an abundance of water to attract the attention of experts. "The search for water is an important goal in the exploration of the Solar System. Now - IESS said - we can say we have located a place where it is abundant." The search for water is also important for the 'hunting' to alien life forms, even though the researchers note, the most recent data suggest that life is more likely to develop in regions where liquid water is in contact with the rock.

science.nasa.gov...

Titan's Underground Ocean June 28, 2012: Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have revealed Saturn's moon Titan likely harbors a layer of liquid water under its ice shell. The finding appears in today's edition of the journal Science.

"Cassini's detection of large tides on Titan leads to the almost inescapable conclusion that there is a hidden ocean at depth," said Luciano Iess, the paper's lead author and a Cassini team member at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. "The search for water is an important goal in solar system exploration, and now we've spotted another place where it is abundant."

Step by step seems the old pillars and old certainties are being crumbled and perhaps a new scientific conscience will have to guide the next investigations and future space missions.
Titan may hold Alien Life! Scientists say

Interesting read.

Thanks for posting!

Very nice! It sounds like they have new corroborating evidence about this ocean, but there has been evidence in the past pointing to the idea of a water ocean under Titan:


NASA had found evidence of such an ocean in 2008:
Signs of Ocean Beneath Titan's Crust
Cassini Spacecraft Finds Ocean May Exist Beneath Titan's Crust

New corroborating evidence would be great, but I'm just pointing out that scientists had a pretty good idea already that this ocean existed, from past evidence.


There has also been older ATS threads about this past evidence of am underground water ocean on Titan:

2008 ATS thread:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

2011 ATS thread:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I feel very confident that within a few years we will discorver some kind of microbial life out side of Earth

reply to post by Arken


And what did we learn about ET life? Every discovery proves life for some people. Last time it was the unexplained methane that was proof of life. Now we explain the methane and we have another proof of life.

Originally posted by OccamsRazor04
reply to post by Arken

 

And what did we learn about ET life? Every discovery proves life for some people. Last time it was the unexplained methane that was proof of life. Now we explain the methane and we have another proof of life.

And so....?

Explain more clearly your opinion, please.