65 million years ago, the fall of a meteorite in what is now the Gulf of Mexico opened a crater 200 kilometers (km) in diameter and caused changes in the Earth's atmosphere that led to the extinction of 75% of life forms, including dinosaurs. However, these large collisions with planets or their satellites do not always generate destruction. These shocks can also precipitate physical and chemical changes capable of resulting in amino acids, molecules essential to life, and even primitive forms of life, such as bacteria. This is what may have happened in Menrva, a 425 km diameter crater north of the equator of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, through an intricate set of geological, physical and chemical phenomena. Menrva is the Etruscan goddess of arts and war on whom the Romans appear to have based themselves to create the goddess Minerva.
Read the full article published in Pesquisa Fapesp (October 20, 2021).
Read more about the topic in articles published in the Unicamp Newspaper and Portal:
Unicamp one step away from Titan, Saturn's moon
Unicamp professor returns from NASA and shares knowledge about Titan, Saturn's largest moon
