Where else might life exist in
our solar system? That’s a
question that NASA scientists
are trying to answer. An
intriguing place we are studying
is Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
It’s the only body in the solar
system other than Earth to
feature seas of liquid on its
surface. But that liquid is
methane instead of water. The
cell membranes we have on Earth,
part of our building blocks for
life, could not form here.
Previous computer simulations
investigated which chemicals
could be used to make cell-like
membranes on Titan. It’s been
calculated that this molecule,
acrylonitrile, is the best
candidate to form the most
stable membranes. What’s
exciting is that our team at
NASA Goddard has now detected
large amounts of this chemical
in Titan’s atmosphere, using
spectroscopic data from ALMA,
the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub
millimeter Array, located in
Chile. And since Titan has rain,
a significant amount may be
reaching the surface and ending
up in Titan’s vast lakes. More
research is needed, but by
definitively detecting this
astrobiologically relevant
molecule on Titan, we are
another step closer to
understanding how and where life
could exist in our solar system.
