Nasa May Want to Skip Mars and Europa for Saturn's Earthlike Titan

Titan (a moon of Saturn) has been found to resemble Earth in many ways. Though a lot smaller than Earth (a little larger than Earths Moon, larger than Mercury, almost as big as Mars) it has some remarkable similarities, which include a barometric pressure (about 1and a half that of Earth at sea level).

However, the similarities do not stop there. A recent Cassini Mission fly-by discovered a terrestrial planetary moon that included in it's topography, such Earth markers as mountain ranges, dunes, shorelines, volcanic activity, smoggy atmosphere and possibities of frozen lakes.

"It's really surprising how closely Titans surface resembles Earth's" said Rosaly Lopes, a Planetary Geologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena California. "In fact Titan looks more like Earth than any other body in the solar system."

Titan is one of the largest moons in the solar system and the only one thought to possess a thick atmosphere.

Though it has liquid lakes, they are not thought to contain water but liquid hydra-carbons (mostly methane and ethane). No permanently liquid water pools can exist on Titan due to the average surface temperature hovering around -180. If liquid water exists it is believed to be carried into the atmosphere by numerous plumes ejected from cryovolcanoes of ammonia, water and ice. Titan only receives about 1 percent of the sunlight earth receives so the ice would be as hard as stone.

It is truly a more frigid world, more so than even our own Antarctic, which makes it even more curious and the lack of many impact craters suggest a healthy plate tectonics situation as well.

Radar imaging on the Cassini Orbiter has allowed the scientists at J.P.L. to map about a third of Titans Surface, despite the thick atmosphere.

The planet size moon is fairly young and could provide us with hints of past Earth evolution and geological development.

Other similarities: Wind and Rain, they most likely helped it to further its mimic of Earth's erosion patterns.

Methane, nitrogen and ammonia were an important element in the creation of life on Earth and could have taken a similar role on Titan as well.

The mountain range features may have formed by the planetary moon compressing when temperatures plummeted but other than that, this world may have grown up, just as Earth did. By studying the scars of it's growth we may learn more of our own planets hectic past and maybe then we'd be more able to calculate it's future.