BYU scientist leads discovery of mountains on Saturn’s largest moon.
"By analyzing images from NASA’s Cassini Radar instrument, a Brigham Young University professor helped discover and analyze mountains on Saturn’s largest moon, additional evidence that it has some of the most earthlike processes of any celestial body in the solar system."
...
"According to the study, Titan’s mountains are most likely made of water ice and are relatively small in height, at most 2 km (1.25 mi) from base to peak. That’s about half as tall as Mount Timpanogos near BYU’s campus. The consistently short height of Titan’s mountains provides evidence that they have been subject to similar amounts of erosion, that they are roughly the same age or that the materials are behaving in a way that prevents them from growing taller."
http://byunews.byu.edu/archive07-Dec-titan.aspx
It is quite cold on Titan so you wouldn't think it might be an abode for life even with this water ice on the surface. However, there was recently published a report finding life metabolizing at temperatures even below the cryogenic temperatures on Titan:
Newsgroups: sci.astro, sci.physics, sci.geo.geology, alt.sci.planetary, sci.bio.misc
From: "Robert Clark" <rgregorycl...@yahoo.com>
Date: 12 Jan 2007 09:42:38 -0800
Local: Fri, Jan 12 2007 12:42 pm
Subject: Could microbes survive in the cryogenic temperatures of Titan?
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.astro/msg/6acfe3f36928e45e
This discovery if confirmed would greatly expand the possibilities for life in this solar system and around other stars. For instance observations of the Kuiper belt object Quaoar found evidence that it has experienced heating on its surface above the temperature at which these microbes were found to survive.
Bob Clark
Ice-water mountains on Titan!?!
