{"id":777813,"date":"2024-02-26T01:17:54","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T06:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=777813"},"modified":"2024-02-26T01:17:54","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T06:17:54","slug":"titan-probably-doesnt-have-the-amino-acids-needed-for-life-to-emerge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=777813","title":{"rendered":"Titan Probably Doesn\u2019t Have the Amino Acids Needed for Life to Emerge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Does Saturn\u2019s largest moon, Titan, possess the necessary ingredients for life to exist? This is what a recent study published in <em>Astrobiology<\/em> hopes to address as a team of international researchers led by Western University investigated if Titan, with its lakes of liquid methane and ethane, could possess the necessary organic materials, such as amino acids, that could be used to produce life on the small moon. This study holds the potential to help researchers and the public better understand the geochemical and biological processes necessary for life to emerge throughout the cosmos.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-165887\"\/><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What You Need to Know About Saturn&#039;s Moon Titan\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lr4r70DWShk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Along with its liquid lakes of methane and ethane, Titan is also strongly hypothesized to possess a subsurface liquid water ocean like Saturn\u2019s icy moon, Enceladus, and Jupiter\u2019s icy moon, Europa. For the study, the researchers used data from impact cratering from comets to estimate the number of organic molecules that could relocate from Titan\u2019s surface to its subsurface liquid water ocean. The team hypothesized that when comets strike Titan\u2019s surface, their icy materials would melt from the heat of the impact and mix with the surface organics, resulting in a unique mixture. However, the heavier liquid water would then sink to the subsurface, slowly filling the subsurface ocean over time.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Artist\u2019s cutaway illustration displaying Titan\u2019s subsurface ocean (blue). (Credit: NASA\/JPL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>After accounting for a presumed annual number of cometary impacts on Titan\u2019s surface throughout its billions of years of existence, the researchers then calculated how much water would make its way from the surface to the subsurface ocean. In the end, the team concluded that the amount of glycine, which is the most basic amino acid that forms the proteins to create life, was measured at no greater than 7,500 kilograms\/year (16,530 pounds\/year). This amount approximately equals the size of a smaller African forest elephant, hence indicating number of organic materials that exist on Titan is quite miniscule.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What Does The Surface Of Titan Look Like? (4K UHD)\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FFAX2Bhw-dg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOne elephant per year of glycine into an ocean 12 times the volume of Earth\u2019s oceans is not sufficient to sustain life,\u201d said Dr. Catherine Neish, who is an associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Western University and lead author of the study. \u201cIn the past, people often assumed that water equals life, but they neglected the fact that life needs other elements, in particular carbon.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NEISH, Catherine | Department of Earth Sciences, Western University\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x2U5lkSXzUg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>While Dr. Neish\u2019s study presents somewhat dire implications for finding life on Titan, this study comes on the heels of a recent investigation into how organic hazes on ancient Earth could have contained the necessary building blocks of life, including nucleobases and amino acids, which could hold implications for finding life on Titan due to the moon\u2019s hazy atmosphere. For this study, the researchers used laboratory experiments to determine that \u201cwarm little ponds\u201d on ancient Earth could host nucleobases. Both studies offer profound insights into the processes responsible for both creating and sustaining life beyond Earth, and further research is undoubtedly required to better understand these processes.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Proteins, Amino Acids, and Evolution\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1HkvDh4J8w4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>One such research opportunity that could help solidify these studies could be NASA\u2019s upcoming Dragonfly mission, which is a quadcopter designed to search Titan\u2019s surface for signs of potential habitability with Dr. Neish assigned as a mission co-investigator. Dragonfly currently has a scheduled launch date of July 2028, arriving at Saturn\u2019s largest moon sometime in 2034. While Dragonfly will not be the first aircraft on another world, as that honor goes to NASA\u2019s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, it will be the first aircraft to land and operate in the outer solar system. Dragonfly will launch more than 20 years after the European Space Agency\u2019s Huygens probe landed on Titan in January 2005, beaming back images of rounded rocks that could have formed from liquid processes. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How Habitable Is Titan? NASA Is Sending The Titan Dragonfly Helicopter To Find Out\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dW7enC5os_w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>What new discoveries will scientists make about Titan and its potential for life in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!<\/p>\n<p><em>As always, keep doing science &amp; keep looking up!<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded\" id=\"like-post-wrapper-24000880-165887-65dc2bae87ceb\" data-src=\"https:\/\/widgets.wp.com\/likes\/#blog_id=24000880&amp;post_id=165887&amp;origin=www.universetoday.com&amp;obj_id=24000880-165887-65dc2bae87ceb\" data-name=\"like-post-frame-24000880-165887-65dc2bae87ceb\" data-title=\"Like or Reblog\">\n<h3 class=\"sd-title\">Like this:<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"button\"><span>Like<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"loading\">Loading&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sd-text-color\"\/><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/165887\/titan-probably-doesnt-have-the-amino-acids-needed-for-life-to-emerge\/?rand=772204\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does Saturn\u2019s largest moon, Titan, possess the necessary ingredients for life to exist? This is what a recent study published in Astrobiology hopes to address as a team of international&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":777814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-777813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genaero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=777813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/777814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=777813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=777813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=777813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}