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NEW YORK: Scientists have found the first indisputable evidence of the presence of a molecule — acrylonitrile — on Titan, which may be key to exotic life on the methane-based, oxygen-free moon of Saturn.
According to researchers at Cornell University in the US, the discovery gets us closer to finding life in a truly alien environment.
“Researchers definitively discovered the molecule, vinyl cyanide (acrylonitrile), that is our best candidate for a ‘protocell’ that might be stable and flexible in liquid methane,” said astronomer Jonathan Lunine from Cornell.
This is a step forward in understanding whether Titan’s methane seas might host an exotic form of life, said Lunine.
“Saturn’s moon, Enceladus is the place to search for life like us, life that depends on – and exists in – liquid water.
Titan, on the other hand, is the place to go to seek the outer limits of life – can some exotic type of life begin and evolve in a truly alien environment, that of liquid methane?” he said.
According to Paulette Clancy, chemical and biological engineer at Cornell, this confirmation suggests that future collaborations between computational approaches and mining of the experimental data can lead to breakthroughs in understanding world’s alien to our own.
