Water Ocean On Titan?

Scientists have known for a while that they were missing something on Titan. The orbital behavior of Saturn's largest moon didn't conform to what was expected of a world with a solid interior. Neither did its axial tilt. The surface of the moon also seems to shift, which it shouldn't do if it were simply the visible layer of a solid body.

Speculation has been that an ocean of liquid water existed beneath the surface. A new study argues that such an ocean is indeed the most likely explanation of the observed behavior of the moon. More work needs to be done on the model, but the subsurface ocean could be more than 200 miles deep.

The Titan we know is a frigid world, but also one chock full of organic compounds, the building blocks of life. Liquid water under such a cold surface suggests a hot core-- to keep the water from freezing. Add an environment of liquid water and heat, or energy, to organic compounds, and you have the possibility of life as we know it. Scientists also think methane-based life might exist on the surface, which would be life as we don't know it. Life of two fundamentally different natures coexisting on one world would be an extraordinary, profound discovery.