Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/University
of Nantes/University of Arizona
Joel Kontinen
Evolutionist claim that here might be precursors to life on Saturn's mon Titan.
A circular molecule spotted on Saturn's Saturn’s moon Titan
Forgetting all
claims to the contrary, Titan may help form precursors to life. This compound
hasn’t been seen in the atmosphere of any planet or moon before.
The molecule is
called cyclopropenylidene and is made up of three carbon atoms in a ring with
two hydrogen atoms attached. Conor Nixon at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
in Maryland and his colleagues spotted it floating in Titan’s thick atmosphere
using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile.
Finding this
molecule on Titan was a
surprise. It is extremely reactive – if it bumps into any other particles, it
tends to be quick to chemically react with them to form new compounds. Because
of this, it had previously only ever been seen in tenuous clouds of gas and
dust in interstellar space. Somehow, it lasts in the upper layers of Titan’s
skies.
Ring-shaped
molecules like this tend to act as the building blocks of molecules necessary
for life, such as DNA and RNA. “This is a really small building block, but you
can build bigger and bigger things with it,” says Nixon. “I don’t think anyone
necessarily believes that there’s microbes on Titan, but the fact that we can
form complex molecules like this on Titan could help tell us things like how
life got started on Earth.”
The study has
roots in the believe that the universe is millions of years old. Conditions on
Titan now may be similar to those on Earth early in the planet’s history, when
the air was dominated by methane, instead of oxygen. Studying its
potential for life could help us learn about the beginnings of life here as
well.
Titan has the
biggest variety of molecules on any moon or planet we have investigated, says
Nixon. ”It’s sort of this happy hunting ground for new things,” he says.
“Molecules like this are almost an early warning sign that there’s more
exciting chemistry to be found.”
Right now, we can
only look for that from Earth, but the Dragonfly spacecraft, planned to launch in 2027, will examine Titan’s surface up close.
Source:
Crane Leah, 2020. Weird ring-shaped molecule on Titan could be a building block to life. New Scientist (30 October)
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