Washington - Titan, the fascinating moon of Saturn known for its dense atmosphere and layer of clouds may have a big ocean of water and ammonia lying deep below its surface, scientists reported on Thursday.

Astronomers did not directly see the ocean but they told that observations done by the Cassini spacecraft suggests the existence of an ocean, maybe 60 miles beneath titan’s surface.

Titan is the 2nd largest moon in the solar system only behind Ganymede, the moon of Jupiter and it is also the largest moon of Saturn. Titan has a diameter of around three thousand two hundred miles, which is greater than that of the dwarf planet Pluto and the planet Mercury.

The Cassini spacecraft, which is on an U.S.-European mission to explore the planet Saturn and its moons, gathered measurements by means of radar that penetrated the thick clouds of Titan during nineteen passes above titan between Oct 2005 and May 2007.

Information from previous observations permitted researchers to determine the positions of fifty landmarks, which includes mountains, canyons and lakes on the surface of Titan. The scientists then examined the data from the later radar and found out that important surface features had moved up to nineteen miles.

Titan’s crust spin is associated to winds that blow through its atmosphere, the researchers said. But it would be difficult to explain the kind of wide displacement of titan’s surface features except for its crust to be separated from its core by an ocean lying below, making the crust to float.

“As Titan’s crust appears to be so mobile, we suppose there is an ocean beneath,” said Ralph Lorenz of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in a telephone interview.

Lorenz, who directed the research published in the journal Science, said that the internal ocean was perhaps mostly water with a small percent of ammonia.”Titan is without doubt one of the most Earth-like landscapes in the solar system and possibly possesses the most Earth-like climate,” he added.

Its atmosphere is by and large formed of nitrogen; in addition to other hydrocarbon elements that give the Saturn’s moon its color i.e. orange.The atmosphere of Titan contains compounds that might have existed in the Earth’s prehistoric atmosphere. The Saturn’s moon may also possess some chemicals such as ethane and methane in greater quantities.

Researchers have also found proof that suggests such internal oceans on other moons in the solar system, which includes Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa of Jupiter and Enceladus of Saturn.

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