As of: February 16, 2024, 3:42 p.m
By: Tanja Banner
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Titan is the largest moon of the planet Saturn.
It has a vast ocean beneath its ice layer.
(Archive image) © imago/ZUMA Press/Nasa
One might think that where there is water, there can be life.
With this in mind, a research team is taking a closer look at Saturn's moon Titan.
London - Titan is the largest moon of the planet Saturn and is very exciting for research: Inside it is said to be a huge ocean that has more than 12 times the volume of all terrestrial oceans.
The Titan Ocean is separated from the surface of the celestial body by a layer of ice many kilometers thick.
Surname: |
titanium |
|---|---|
Type: |
Ice Moon, Saturn's largest moon |
Discovery: |
1655 |
Discoverer: |
Christiaan Huygens |
Diameter: |
5150km |
Special feature: |
huge ocean beneath the surface |
Water in the solar system – this is where researchers looking for life are paying attention.
Because where water exists, there could also be life as we know it on Earth.
But that's apparently not always the case, as a new study shows.
A research team led by astrobiologist Catherine Neish from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, studied Saturn's moon Titan and came to a devastating conclusion: Apparently Titan's ocean does not get enough carbon to support life.
Saturn's moon Titan has a massive underground ocean
“The scientific community has been excited to find life in the icy worlds of the outer solar system,” explains Neish in a statement from her university.
“Our discovery suggests that this is less likely than we previously thought,” the researcher continued.
The study was
published in the journal
Astrobiology .
Neish and her team are trying to quantify how many organic molecules could penetrate from the moon's organically rich surface into the ocean.
To do this, the team calculated how many comets hit Titan over time, melting its surface and causing organic material to reach its depths.
The research team's finding is disappointing: around 7,500 kilograms of glycine (the simplest amino acid) are likely to end up in the ocean every year through this mechanism - that's roughly the weight of an adult African elephant.
Tiny drop of carbon in the vast Titan ocean
“An elephant per year of glycine in an ocean 12 times the size of Earth’s oceans is not enough to sustain life,” Neish emphasizes.
In fact, this amount would be just a tiny drop in the vast ocean.
"In the past, people have often assumed that water equals life, but they have neglected the fact that life also requires other elements, especially carbon." All biomolecules use carbon as the backbone of their molecular structure, which is why carbon is used as a building block of life applies.
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Now Titan is considered a celestial body that has a relatively large amount of carbon on its surface.
In 2004, for example, the Cassini-Huygens mission discovered liquid hydrocarbon lakes at the moon's poles.
However, things look worse for other ice worlds with an inner ocean in our solar system: Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede as well as Saturn's moon Enceladus have almost no carbon on their surfaces - how can the important carbon get into the water?
“Difficult to have water and carbon in the same place”
"This work shows that it is very difficult to transfer carbon from Titan's surface to the subsurface ocean - so it is difficult to have the water and carbon necessary for life in the same place," notes Neish firmly.
“Unfortunately, we now have to be a little less optimistic when looking for extraterrestrial life forms in our own solar system.”
The researcher is also involved in the US space organization NASA's “Dragonfly” mission, which is scheduled to set off for Titan in 2028.
“It is almost impossible to determine the composition of Titan's organic-rich surface by viewing it through its organic-rich atmosphere with a telescope,” Neish explains why NASA wants to go to Titan.
“We need to land there and take samples from the surface to determine its composition.”
The “Dragonfly” mission is scheduled to set off for Saturn’s moon Titan in 2028 and land there a few years later.
(Artist's impression) © IMAGO/Cover Images
NASA wants to learn a lot from Titan
Even if the ocean is not habitable, you can learn a lot there.
The aim of the research is to identify impact sites on the surface of the moon where melted water mixes with the organic material.
“'Dragonfly' could search for the products of these prebiotic reactions and show us how life could arise on different planets,” says the researcher, looking into the future.
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