Scientists: Methane may be Titan's 'water'

Scientists say methane might serve the same purpose on Saturn's moon Titan that water does on Earth, the BBC reported Monday.

Many processes -- such as wind, rain and volcanism -- that occur on Earth also take place on Titan, said scientists participating in the U.S.-European Cassini-Huygens mission.

"Titan is perhaps the most Earth-like place in the Solar System ... in terms of the balance of processes," Jonathan Lunine of the University of Arizona, an interdisciplinary scientist for Cassini-Huygens, told the BBC.

But he noted the chemistry driving such processes is radically different.

The new data were presented recently in Cambridge, England, during the 37th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society Division of Planetary Sciences.

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