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How a Canadian Crater will help scientists explore Titan
By training, I’m an astronomer. Growing up and all through my university years, my mind was always in the stars. As a journalist, however, I’ve found myself learning things about geology I never learned in school. At my first planetary science conference, back in 2003, I found out that here on Earth we have volcanoes that are in every scientific way the same as volcanoes on Mars and the Moon, and researchers will study satellite images of all the different worlds looking for the things that look the same from space, so they can hike out with tools and literally poke and hammer on the versions here on Earth. The Earth features that are like geological features on other worlds are called analogues, and they come in many forms. There are sub-freezing, volcanic caves here on Earth that are like those on Mars, we think. And dune fields migrating across the Australian desert are like the dunes on every terrestrial world with an atmosphere.
Studying these Earth Analogues is particularly important as we prepare to send rovers, fliers, and even people to other worlds. The Dragon Fly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan will take off in 2027 with plans to land near a large crater in 2036. This site was selected because the energy of an impact would melt the icy surface of Titan, and possibly allow for the kinds of chemical reactions that could led to life…
