Titan in Natural Color. Cassini spacecraft April 16, 2005. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Since the Voyager mission to Saturn in the 1970s, we have long known that one of its moons, Titan, has been a promising location in the search for life. Not only does it have water oceans (albeit frozen over), it has been shown to have organic molecules known as “thiolins” form in its upper atmosphere. The molecules are forms of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen that, when exposed to sunlight, can transform into the building blocks of life.

In April, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory published an article in Nature Communications with the findings of a recent study. They were able to show that enough sunlight filters through the Titan atmosphere to allow the formation of these molecules at much lower altitudes than previously thought.

This provides promising information! By forming lower in the atmosphere, they are able to condense on chunks of ice and even seep into the oceans where they would be able to form amino acids and nucleotide bases. The ingredients for life can now come together!

Sources:

NASA Team Investigates Complex Chemistry at Titan

Photochemical Activity of Titan’s Low-Altitude Condensed Haze

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory