The methane is wafted hundreds of miles above the surface of this world. It is cracked open by sunlight and cosmic rays, so that a menagerie of more complicated organics is produced from the methane. These float down to the surface to accumulate over time, perhaps to depths of hundreds of meters or more. Volcanism and impacts shape the surface and add energy to make ever more complex organic molecules in a planet-wide tapestry that is an organic chemist's dream. Although Titan is almost certainly not the home of life today, it constitutes a natural laboratory replaying some of the steps that led to life on Earth, Lunine said.
Titan is in some ways the closest analogue to the Earth's environment before life began.
To see this world could help explain how we came to be and whether life might be ubiquitous throughout the cosmos. UA scientists lead or belong to teams for Huygens instruments that will analyze solid organic fallout from the Titan atmosphere, measure how much sunlight penetrates different levels of the haze, search for lightning and study the state and composition of the landing site surface in addition to taking the images from Titan. Professor William V. Boynton is co-investigator on the probe's Surface Science Package. The Titan probe is like having dessert first. But it won't spoil researchers' appetites for the hefty main science course the orbiter tour of the Saturn system, which is regarded as a kind of miniature solar system.