Abstract
Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn, is the only moon with a substantial atmosphere in our solar system. The Cassini-Huygens mission by NASA/ESA (2004–2017) returned a wealth of information about Titan’s atmosphere and surface environments. Titan exhibits remarkable similarities with Earth. Active organic chemistry in the atmosphere, a dynamic methane hydrological cycle, and the internal global water ocean are all unique features of astrobiological interest. The exploration of Titan’s organic environment provides us with a unique opportunity to understand abiotic, possibly prebiotic, chemistry on a planetary scale.
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Acknowledgments
HI is partially supported by the NASA Cassini Data Analysis Program. Dr. Mark Smith and an anonymous reviewer are acknowledged for valuable comments to improve the quality of this manuscript.
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Imanaka, H. (2019). Astrobiology on Titan: Geophysics to Organic Chemistry. In: Yamagishi, A., Kakegawa, T., Usui, T. (eds) Astrobiology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3639-3_26
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3639-3_26
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