Titan, the cloudy moon of Saturn, is one of the least hostile places (for humans) in the outer solar system. One of the most fascinating hypotheses for Titan's habitability came in 2015, when chemical engineers in the US created a template explaining how life on Titan – and other places in the Universe – could be methane-based and oxygen-free. You couldn’t take Earth organisms to the surface of Titan and expect them to live. According to one exotic theory, long ago, the impact of a meteorite, for example, might have provided enough heat to … But scientists are still currently puzzled by the amount of methane that persists in Titan's atmosphere. Some of them would be signs of life if they were on our planet. Could this mean there is life on Titan? All rights reserved, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window). Titan's surface is -180°C. According to one exotic theory, long ago, the impact of a meteorite, for example, might have provided enough heat to liquify water for perhaps a few hundred or thousand years. Their conclusion: life could exist, but it wouldn't look anything like we expect here on Earth. Cassini had revealed something.. NASA’s VIPER Mission To Hunt Lunar Water In 2022, Scientific Aspects of Dust Cleaning by Martian Wind from InSight Lander, NASA’s Ambitious Mission, Voyager 2 Probe Enters Interstellar Space. Will they help us to discover how life began on Earth? Organic compounds form when sunlight destroys methane. It is far too cold for liquid water to exist, and all known forms of life need liquid water. It says that life may exist in liquid methane bodies on Titan in the same way as life exists on Earth in water bodies. You have already liked this page, you can only like it once. Titan's surface is -180°C. Titan's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen but there are also methane and many other organic compounds. Such organisms would inhale hydrogen in place of oxygen, metabolize it with acetylene instead of glucose, and exhale methane instead of carbon dioxide. Methane is a by-product of the metabolism of many organisms. The liquid that fills Titan's lakes and rivers is not water, but liquid methane, probably mixed with other substances like liquid ethane, all of which are gases here on Earth. On Earth today, it is life itself that refreshes the methane supply. Is life on Titan possible? Titan is not a pleasant place for life. However, it is unlikely that Titan is a site for life today. It is far too cold for liquid water to exist, and all known forms of life need liquid water. How do they form on Titan? It has lakes of liquid methane, and even weather. Studying its potential for life could help us learn about the beginnings of life here as well. Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a mysterious place. Its thick atmosphere is rich in organic compounds. If sunlight is continuously destroying methane, how is methane getting into the atmosphere? Titan is not a pleasant place for life. Could there be oceans of methane on or under the surface? Life — in the sense of things which metabolise, grow, and reproduce — could well exist on the surface of Titan, but would need to be based on chemistry different to Earth life. While humans (and all other forms of Earth life) would have a hard time coping in this chilly, waterless environment, researchers believe that life could still be possible on Titan. On Earth, the simplest biological sources, such as those associated with peat bogs, rice fields and ruminant animals, continuously supply fresh gas to replace that destroyed by oxidation. Given the differences, scientists ponder the best places to look for Titan life. 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