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Man has always been curious to know about the origin of life. Some have suggested that the life could have been brought to Earth by extra-terrestrials! For example, Eric von Daniken suggested this in Chariots of the Gods, which he wrote around 40 years ago. Similar suggestion was made by Sir Fred Hoyle and Professor N. Chandra Wickremasinghe, scientists with impeccable credentials, in 1970s. They propounded the Panspermia (meaning “seeds everywhere”) theory which maintains that life evolved out of a primordial soup, which got dispersed into cosmos through comets and meteorites. Life began on Earth, when some of this landed on it. However, many mainstream scientists just laugh it out. An obvious reason for this is that the conditions conducive to existence of life and its propagation as available on Earth are not there elsewhere; one of these being the temperature factor. Titan, though quite different from our mother planet, Earth, has many special features, which the scientists believe could help in revealing the origin of life. It is the only moon in our solar system with an atmosphere. And this could be similar to that of Earth when life began here. Thanks to Voyager I, we already know that the Titan’s atmosphere predominantly contains nitrogen with small percentage of methane. But Titan is surrounded by a thick orange haze which obstructs the view below the dense clouds and therefore no one has been able to know about the surface features. However, being 1200 million kilometres away from the sun, titan has a very low surface temperature, -180°C, which makes the chances of life on it very slim.

Select the most appropriate title of the passage

Solution

✅ Correct Option: 3
  1. 'Earth’s Protective Blanket' - This is incorrect. The passage is not about Earth's atmosphere or any protective layer.
  2. 'Voyager and Interstellar Space' - This is incorrect. While Voyager I is mentioned, the focus of the passage is not on Voyager or interstellar space.
  3. 'Titan and the Origin of Life' - This is correct. The passage discusses Titan and its potential to reveal information about the origin of life, making this the most appropriate title.
  4. 'Effect of Panspermia' - This is incorrect. Although Panspermia is mentioned, it is not the primary focus of the passage.

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