JPL/University of Arizona/University of Idaho/ NASA
Moon Titã, from Saturn, obtained by the cassini probe of NASA
Water is the basis of a lot… but it’s not everything. And Titan is full of chemistry. And life… but otherwise.
All the organisms of the earth, regardless of biome, the kingdom, the domain, whether it is an extremophilic in a thermal source or a lithotrophic buried in the crust, depend on water.
Water is the universal solvent. Life is ultimately a series of chemical reactionsand these chemical reactions have to take place in a medium. Water is a great choice because it is abundant, it is liquid in a wide range of temperatures, it is liquid at hot temperatures, which means there is a lot of energy to circulate, dissolves a wide variety of molecules…
But water is not the only liquid in the universe. Titan has no liquid water on its surface. But it has liquids. Seas, lakes, streams, rivers… of methane and ethane.
Titan is a world unlike any other. Is the Greatest Moon of Saturnand is even greater than our moon. It is the only rocky world throughout the solar system, beyond the earth, which has a substantial atmosphere. It is so substantial that the surface air pressure is 50% higher than that of Earth, although Titan is much, much smaller than our planet.
This atmosphere is almost entirely nitrogenwith a considerable fraction of methane. But the UV sun radiation reacts with this nitrogen and methane to produce a wide variety of other molecules, including acetylene, cyanogen, benzene, propane and propane accessories.
And all this – all this – is working at a temperature of about 180 degrees Celsius negatives, or about 300 degrees Fahrenheit negatives. There is nothing like Titan.
To these temperatures and pressures, the metanos and ethanos remain liquid. And it is possible – and I really want to emphasize the word– that these liquids can serve as a solvent for life.
Titan has everything. Not water, but a liquid solvent for the recreation of life. Has an abundant source of energy, namely the UV radiation of the sun. It has aThe extremely rich chemistry, with a vast and diverse range of compounds. And it has physics: temperatures and pressures that allow the occurrence of complex chemistry and the movement of materials through precipitation and wind to mix them.
If there is life in Titan, it is different from any life similar to that of Earth, a deep, fundamental and biochemical level. It is not life -based life. It is methane -based life. Instead of consuming oxygen or carbon dioxide, methane -based life would consume hydrogen or acetylene.
In fact, proof of NASA’s Cassini probe and the Huygens probe, which landed on the surface in 2005, reveal the production of hydrogen and acetylene in the atmosphere, but their lack of surface.
Of course there are many ways to remove them from the atmosphere at low altitudes. But maybe… to stay eaten.
In fact, it may even be possible to build cell membranes using Titan exotic chemistry. On Earth, most of life uses phospholipids to build membranes, but they are scarce in the cold and toxic Titan environment. Instead, life in Titan could build what are azotossomaswhich are membranes made of acrylonitrile-although other investigations suggest that these compounds only form ice instead of flexible and semi-rigid membranes.
Life in Titan would not be exactly… exciting. I would be great to find it, but the Extremely low temperatures prevent fast metabolism. It is almost certain that if there is life, it will be so simple and slow that it can be unrecognizable.
As if that were not enough, Titan has a secret. The atmosphere and methane lakes are on a crust made of water. And some computer models suggest that there is an ocean of liquid water hidden under this crust. This ocean would not be as beautiful and immaculate as Europe, as it would probably be extremely rich in ammonia.
On Earth, this would be a completely toxic environment. Thus, in the possible ocean of Titan, life would not only have to overcome the lack of sunlight, but also a challenging atmosphere to support biological functions.
But the hypothesis cannot be excluded, at least for now. In 2028, NASA plans to launch the Dragonfly Mission For Titan, which is a rotating wing aircraft designed to land in places, study them and then jump to another location. As with all other missions conceived to look for life, the hopes of finding it are… scarce.
