In a move to locate possible alien life in the solar system, the American space agency NASA is all set to explore Neptune's moon Triton.
As per the reports, Neptune's moon Titan has a hidden ocean inside its icy exterior. Experts believe that watery worlds on earth, even in harsh conditions are hosting life and in the same manner, water bodies on Neptune's frozen moon Titan might be also harbouring alien life.
NASA is planning to develop a new kind of spacecraft known as Trident to explore Triton's surface and oceans. Once this mission begins, Trident will fly to Tritan and will analyze the frozen moon's atmosphere and its chemical makeup.
It should be noted that Triton is an object that is now orbiting in the Kuiper Belt and objects in this area of the solar system are known for having weird orbits.
Earlier, several experts had suggested that this weird orbit on Kuiper belt is the result of the gravitational pull exerted by a hypothesized space body know as Planet 9.
"Ocean worlds may represent the best possibility, in our solar system, of finding life. We need to understand whether these oceans are habitable and if so, whether these oceans actually host life. Triton shows tantalizing hints at being active and having an ocean. It is a three-for-one target because you can visit the Neptune system, visit this interesting ocean world, and also visit a Kuiper belt object without having to go all the way out there," said Dr Amanda Hendrix, co-lead of the NASA Roadmaps to Oceans World Group, Express.co.uk reports.
Interestingly, space agencies like NASA have a very little understanding of Triton. The only images of the moon were captured by the Voyager 2 probe in 1989, and during that flyby, experts noted plumes on Triton that spewed out nitrogen gas.
Previously a research report published in the Journal of Astrobiology and Space Science has confirmed the presence of alien life forms on Mars. In the study report, researchers revealed that 15 photos from Mars taken by NASA's Curiosity Rover are featuring living forms like fungi and algae.
