Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, continues to yield fantastic discoveries.  Cassini’s investigation of the moon already has shown valleys, possible rivers, mountains, and a great many other Earth-like traits, but now it’s given us something even more spectacular: liquid lakes!  These bodies were revealed by radar passes.

Before you get all excited, understand these are hydrocarbon lakes, not water, so they probably are filled with methane or ethane, or a similar fluid.  Despite this, the discovery is fantastic and intriguing.  It certainly raises a great many questions.  It also deals a tremendous blow to the premise that Earth is unique.

The more we discover, the more we realize our own solar system contains challenges to so much of the Earth-centric position held by the religious and scientifically ignorant.  Now, imagine those challenges magnified 100 billion times and you can understand the possibilities inherent in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

And what of the rest of the universe?  There are more stars in all the galaxies we know about than there are grains of sand on every beach on our own planet.  At last estimate, there were at least 70 sextillion stars visible from our location, and that only includes what we can see.

For those wondering, 70 sextillion is 7 followed by 22 zeros: 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.  That’s how many stars we know about.  The more we look into the heavens, the more we discover, so that number will only grow.

Add to that the increasing rapidity with which we are discovering planets outside our own solar system.  We’ve found several hundred to date.  We’ve only been able to positively locate very large planets (like Jupiter) because, well, they’re very large and easier to find.  Planets like Earth and Mars are much more difficult to find because they’re, well, smaller and harder to see.  But can there be any doubt they’re out there amidst the incalculable stars we know to exist and those we don’t know about yet?

Another fascinating tidbit is that we have also identified stellar nurseries: areas where new stars are forming.  On top of that, we’ve also found accretion disks.  Those are the massive rotating menageries of planet-forming material orbiting around distant stars.  So we see both new stars and new planets forming all over the universe.

To go back to where we began, discovering the lakes and other Earth-like traits on Titan, a moon orbiting a planet in our very own solar system, can anyone be sincere in doubting that life exists out there?

Ah, Jason, but you already said the lakes weren’t made of water.  What of that?

Yes, what of it?  All life on our planet is what?  Carbon-based.  The lakes on Titan are what?  Hydrocarbons.  Any questions?  Need life be exactly as it is here in order to be life?  The answer is a resounding “No!”, and discoveries on our own planet indicate carbon isn’t the only possible life-supporting element available.

But let’s talk about water.  You know, that magical liquid we see jetting out of geyser-like structures on Enceladus, another of Saturn’s moons.  That’s liquid water on a planetary body other than Earth, and it’s right here in our own solar system.  Again, any questions?

There are a multitude of possible life-supporting bodies right here in our own neighborhood, and the discovery of planets elsewhere requires that we assume the same is true there (evidence for this assumption is right here on the moons of Saturn and on Earth, not to mention other places).

How exciting it is to live in a time when so much discovery is challenging so many of our anthropocentric assumptions.  It’s even more wondrous to realize the diversity of environments within our own solar system that well could support life.  Given the extrasolar planetary discoveries, the wonders never cease.

Only fools could claim we are alone.