Scientists Discover New Molecule, Possible Basis For Life, on Saturn's Moon Titan

CNN reports: Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is the only moon in our solar system that has a thick atmosphere. It's four times denser than Earth's. And now, scientists have discovered a molecule in it that has never been found in any other atmosphere.

The particle is called cyclopropenylidene, or C3H2, and it's made of carbon and hydrogen. This simple carbon-based molecule could be a precursor that contributes to chemical reactions that may create complex compounds.

And those compounds could be the basis for potential life on Titan.

The molecule was first noticed as researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array of telescopes in Chile. This radio telescope observatory captures a range of light signatures, which revealed the molecule among the unique chemistry of Titan's atmosphere. The study published earlier this month in the Astronomical Journal...

"We're trying to figure out if Titan is habitable," said Rosaly Lopes, a senior research scientist and Titan expert at JPL, in a statement. "So we want to know what compounds from the atmosphere get to the surface, and then, whether that material can get through the ice crust to the ocean below, because we think the ocean is where the habitable conditions are."

Not surprising.

[I'mjusthere]

This entire solar system is made of the same shit from the same shit.

Re:Not surprising.

[ShanghaiBill]

This entire solar system is made of the same shit from the same shit.

Except that Cyclopropenylidene [wikipedia.org] doesn't exist on earth.

If someone showed me the chemical structure of that compound, I would tell them they are crazy and nothing like that could possibly be stable. Yet it exists on Titan.

Re: Not surprising.

[beelsebob]

Itâ(TM)s not stable - it doesnâ(TM)t exist on earth because itâ(TM)s so crazy reactive.

a sign of no life actually

[iggymanz]

the metabolic products of carbon based life aren't in the atmosphere of Titan, the place is obviously barren. Hydrocarbons, what bacteria crave....

Re:a sign of no life actually

[Rei]

Hydrocarbon is a sea of complex organic chemistry, but it's very different from what we know on Earth. If there is life there, it wouldn't be LAWKI. Still carbon based, but built around very different reactions. For example, on Titan, acrylonitrile behaves like phospholipids behave on Earth. There's whole classes of chemicals that have potential for various light harvesting, shuttling, structural, and other purposes in a Titan-like environment - but without evidence that they're ever actually assembled into anything, it's speculation.

There's also arguments that there's a strong shortage acetylene near the surface (and to a lesser extent, less ethylene than predicted), both of which could serve as "fuel" for life on Titan (and was even predicted as a biomarker to look for before Huygens visited Titan). There's even acetylenotrophs on Earth, and they're apparently surprisingly abundant (even though acetylene isn't). But whether such a thing exists on Titan, for know, should be filed under "curious data we should investigate better".

Re:

[Rei]

ED: Titan is a sea of complex organic chemistry....

Re:

[iggymanz]

Not really, atmosphere of titan made of very simple known stuff. Mostly nitrogen and methane, just a few thousandths or less of those hydrocarbons. The atmosphere of a place with nothing happening, even if your weird make-believe 95 K life existed

Re:

[Rei]

Not really, atmosphere of titan made of very simple known stuff. Mostly nitrogen and methane, just a few thousandths or less of those hydrocarbons.

And earth's crust is a couple hundred ppm - all carbon compounds combined. So your point? Relative to their complexity, complex organics are surprisingly common [wikipedia.org] in Titan's atmosphere. Acetylene alone, a high-energy compound, is similar in concentration in Titan's upper atmosphere than carbon dioxide is in Earth's atmosphere. CO2, our low-energy atmospheric ca

Re:

[Rei]

I see you've given up on complex organics and are now pivoting to oxygen. Except that free oxygen has never been considered as a likely biosign on Titan. Speculations about life on Titan have revolved around them "burning" complex hydrocarbons and carbon-nitrogen compounds to methane and nitrogen. The biosign to look for on Titan thus has been a surface depletion of complex hydrocarbons based on calculations of what should be there based on atmospheric transport rates. And curiously enough, that's exactly

Re:

[iggymanz]

No, your self-labeled "complex organics", which are actually extremely simple organics are the pivoting. There are entire nebula in space with acetylene in them, cyclopropenylidene is found throughout galaxy (its name is more complex than the C3H2 itself is)

Boring simple organics found literally everywhere in the universe with not a cell in sight...

Really?

[the_skywise]

Did you just basically say - “It’s life, Jim but not as we know it.”

Re:

[Rei]

Damnit, Skywise, I'm a Slashdot user, not a trekkie! ;)

high order polynomials

[starless]

Hopefully this detection didn't rely on subtracting a 12th order polynomial from the spectrum, as was done with the "discovery" of phosphine on Venus...
https://www.sciencenews.org/ar... [sciencenews.org]

Re:

[ffkom]

Indeed, if it becomes a habit to turn every molecule detection at some planet's into a wild speculation on life there, that will be one boring series of "science" news coming up.