Moonstruck

Saturn’s moon Titan has been socked in by smog for eons. The Huygens space probe last week pierced the veil, parachuting in for a landing. Titan’s orange, rubbly terrain calls to mind Mars, though the -290??F temperatures mean the rocks are probably made of ice. Other images revealed what could be rivers and lakes filled with liquid ethane and methane. The chemistry resembles that of a flash-frozen Earth before life emerged. Data still to come may shed light on how all biology came to be. –By Jeffrey Kluger