Scientists are investigating specific geological features on the largest moons of both Jupiter and Saturn that could be ideal spots for the emergence of life elsewhere in the solar system.
The team, led by researchers from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, looked at what are called "strike-slip faults" on the Jovian moon, Ganymede — the solar system’s largest moon, bigger even than the planet Mercury — and Saturn's moon, Titan. Faults like these happen when fault walls move past each other horizontally, either to the left or the right, with a famous example here on Earth being the San Andreas fault. It's sort of like a giant crack, rift, or certain type of crevice in the ground.
