Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
A possible issue with Titan's water mantle is that it is probably deeper than 75 km. With a density of 1.88 grams per cubic centimeters, it could easily have a water 900 km thick beneath a 100 km thick crust.
|
I've found a few more papers on Titan's structure, and the most up-to-date data I can find suggests that Titan's outer crust has an overall density somewhere in the range of 0.92-1.65; the ocean 1.30 to 1.35; the high-pressure ice mantle 1.3 to 1.4; and the core 3.395 to 4.490. (And I've got other figures on temperatures, pressures, layer thicknesses, the most likely solutes of the ocean, etc.) The least steady figure I can find is the thickness of the ocean - depending on the source, it's 5-110 km, 75 km, >180 km, or 400 km from top to bottom. (And ever-so-slowly shrinking, as the core loses heat and the icy layers gradually thicken.)
Quote:
|
Of course, there could also be multicellular lifeforms in the water mantle, there are all of the requirements of life, and they might get large enough to pose a threat to a small submersible.
|
As best as I can tell, one important requirement for life is missing in Titan's ocean: an energy source. There's no sunlight; the icy mantle prevents contact between the ocean and the rocky core and also prevents any hydrothermal vents; the temperature gradient is too gradual to be drawn on; there's nowhere near enough radioactives for radiosynthesis; and there aren't enough of the more interesting chemicals to feed on, even the non-Earthly-life reactions like combining hydrogen with acetylene (both of which can at least be found in Titan's atmosphere, if in minute quantities).
About the only real option I've come up with is if some Earthlings dropped some reactors into the ocean, along with some life custom-tailored both for the environment and to draw on whatever form of energy the reactors were designed to emit. ... Or, depending on how broadly you want to describe 'life', someone might have launched some giantish TL10ish flexibody eel-bots.