Vision on Titan/Early Earth and the technicalities of a creature seeing in near infrared

I am trying to develop an alien species that could live on Titan and at first I supposed it would be easy with the species being able to use yellow, red and near-infrared wavelengths of light to see.

But then realised that the windows in Titan's atmosphere aren't as conveniently placed as those of Earth's and that blind spots could be caused by the absorption lines of certain chemicals, the most annoying absorption lines being those of the liquid on Titan's surface.

My question is if there is a window for both Titan's atmosphere and Titan's liquid? Would this result in a liquid with an appearance similar to water to our eyes or result in a liquid that would appear almost opaque?

A world where "water" is opaque sounds like an fascinating story writing opportunity due to how terrifying it is as a concept but I have no idea what liquid methane/ethane is like.

Also, if the liquid is opaque how does it effect a creature's ability to see at all since most eyes contain liquids. Would I have to copy the rattlesnake solution to the problem of infrared and also how would a creature's eyes (or some other vision apparatus) need to change to see near infra-red?

posted over 6 years ago

Merlin Rowlands‭

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