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.