Diagram illustrating how biosignatures could also be transported from the subsurface ocean to the surface of Titan. 1. Sotra Facula is a possible cryovolcano on Titan, one of the few candidates known. It's in here that it allows biochemical reactions to take place within the cell as well as protecting and encasing all the vital parts of the cell such as the nucleus. If you chuck a load of these phospholipids in water the polar heads are attracted to one another and would join together, forming a sheet-like structure. This molecule is a vital component for cell formation, therefore its presence is a strong indicator that life could well exist in one of Titan’s many lakes and seas. Countless images of lakes and seas have been returned from the Cassini mission, along with clear signs of valleys and rivers. The largest known craters on Titan are Sinlap (70 miles/112 kms in diameter), Selk (56 miles/90 kms) and Menrva (244 miles/392 kms). A large, fairly young crater on Titan, about 25 miles (40 km) in diameter. However, thanks to a surface temperature of -179.5°C (-291.1°F), all water on Titan’s surface is frozen rock solid. Between craters and cryovolcanoes, it would seem that craters would be the most ideal location for pre-biotic or biotic chemistry to occur. While in school he was known for his passion for space exploration and astronomy. The information is presented “as is” for your educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or prescribe for any medical or psychological condition, nor to prevent, treat, mitigate or cure such conditions or prevent any disease. This recent discovery suggest there might be... Titan, Saturn’s largest moon and, hands down, one of the most intriguing moons of our solar system, has just become all the more fascinating. TechRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. The methane/ethane lakes and seas should still be explored too; they are the only other known bodies of liquid on the surface of another moon or planet in the solar system. Saturn’s bizarre moon Titan has carbon-based compounds in its atmosphere that may be a precursor to life. He started his blog The Meridiani Journal in 2005, which was a chronicle of planetary exploration. Perhaps surprisingly, the research team, led by Catherine Neish, a planetary scientist specializing in impact cratering at the University of Western Ontario, suggested that the best locations to look for life on Titan would not be the lakes or seas. Credit: NASA, An artist’s impression of the Titan Submarine based on the conceptual designs. Rough calculations, found in the very paper that announced the detection of vinyl cyanide, estimate there may be as many 10 million azotosomes per cubic centimetre of liquid found in a Titanean lake. There is also evidence for a subsurface ocean of water, similar to those believed to lie beneath the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Vinyl cyanide is hypothesised to join together to form a cell membrane, the outer layer of a cell that creates a tiny enclosed environment. Visit our corporate site. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, In 2015, researchers at Cornell University attempted to model a cell membrane based on the chemistry and climate of Titan. Instead, the new work shows a better place to look would be within impact craters and cryovolcanoes on Titan. As Neish said: Cryovolcanism is the harder thing to do and there is very little evidence of it on Titan. This image was built from radar topography with infrared colors overlaid on top. Titan’s surface is also covered with tholins, which are large, complex organic molecules produced when gases are subjected to cosmic radiation. Like Britain in summer, it rains a lot on Titan and the rainfall would transport the vinyl cyanide, along with many other molecules to Titan’s surface. For now, we can only imagine what might be in that alien abyss. Titan is a geological wonderland for planetary scientists. The issue is a) it takes on average six years to get to Saturn and b) there are currently no confirmed missions for further exploration of Titan. A circular molecule spotted on Saturn’s moon Titan may help form precursors to life. Sign up to get breaking news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more, plus the hottest tech deals! One, is that we’re pretty sure there are craters on Titan. Buzz Aldrin on how, why and when you'll get your ass to Mars, Hot Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals, bundles and games you can still get, Where to buy PS5: restock tracker to find PS5 on sale during Black Friday, With cyberattacks through the roof, endpoint protection is more important than ever, FIFA 21 on PS5 sounds way more fun than the Xbox Series X version, Sony sold more PS5s during launch week than the Xbox Series X/S combined, 5 amazing Black Friday gaming accessory deals from Currys PC World, Announcing TechRadar India Awards 2020 (and a giveaway! As Neish explained: Craters really emerged as the clear winner for three main reasons. The answer is Titan’s craters and cryovolcanoes. Various studies have suggested that liquid methane and ethane could support life. Although ground based telescopes and current exploratory missions have done a stellar job so far, the only way we can be 100% certain azotosomes (and potentially life) actually exist in the great lakes of Titan is to actually visit this distant moon again. Monster sunspot AR2786 swings into better view, Athanasios Karagiotas/Theoni Shalamberidze. He has also written for Universe Today and SpaceFlight Insider, and has also been published in The Mars Quarterly and has done supplementary writing for the well-known iOS app Exoplanet for iPhone and iPad. Although there are liquid hydrocarbon lakes on Titan, at temperatures that low the phospholipid tails would also become far too rigid and stiff to form a flexible membrane. They called this potential alien membrane an “azotosome” and it’s the opposite of a phospholipid membrane, where the non-polar tails would stick in/out of the cell and the polar heads would join together to form a barrier. It’s worth noting that vinyl cyanide has only been detected in Titan’s atmosphere and even then, there are only 2.8 vinyl cyanide molecules per billion. You will receive a verification email shortly. Due to a small charge imbalance the head of a phospholipid is 'polar', but the tail is not and is referred to as 'non-polar'. Then there is also a distinct lack of oxygen in the Titanean atmosphere meaning a cell-membrane made of phospholipids is simply not feasible. Now all this talk of DNA and cell membranes is still hypothetical, just because the building blocks for life are there, it doesn’t mean they will definitely put themselves together and find a way to become a living cell. Titan, the cloudy moon of Saturn, is one of the least hostile places (for humans) in the outer solar system. If you want to know more about Titan, check out this video which covers all the basics, including how Titan formed, why it’s covered in a yellow haze and how cryovolcanoes plague it’s already unique surface. Whatever the case may be, Dr Neish is involved in the launch of NASA's Dragonfly mission to Titan in 2027. The processes involved with both of these geologic features can melt water ice into liquid, even if only temporarily. David Grinspoon at the Planetary Science Institute isn’t convinced yet, however. But that might be enough for more complex organic molecules like amino acids to form. After scouring through archival data collected in 2014 by ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array), a set of 66 radio telescopes situated in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, astronomers detected the three strongest rotational lines of C2H3CN - i.e. It’s this phospholipid bi-layer that makes up the cell membranes here are on Earth. Since the non-polar tails repel water, they would join end to end, meaning these two sheets would come together to form a bi-layer. Shows how the acrylonitrile molecules align, with the heads in and tails out and 2. ). Also in 2012, an experiment on Earth simulated the conditions and components of Titan’s atmosphere, bombarded it with UV radiation (the same amount that the Sun emits) and found the components of DNA and RNA had formed, along with several amino acids. Enter vinyl cyanide, a molecule whose tails are still flexible at extremely low temperatures, requires no oxygen whatsoever, and is made up of polar/non-polar components – an ideal candidate to make up that all important cell membrane. That being said, there have been many mission proposals, the most promising of which is the TiME (Titan Mare Explorer) mission which suggests building a submarine to explore the depths of Titan’s lakes and seas.