The largest moon of Saturn, Titan, May Harbor Life. Scientists have discovered what it could look like, where it is probably found, and in what quantities. The study was published In the Planetary Science Journal, Reports Physically.
Saturn’s Moon Titan is a unique world. It is the only satellite of a planet in the solar system with a thick atmosphere and liquid on the surface.
However, it is not water, but liquid methane, and it is found in lakes and rivers that covered in the middle of a surface with ice rots and sand. It is believed that the Titan crust consists of ice, and below it can be an underground ocean of liquid water, the depth of which is estimated at 500 km.
Previous studies have shown that Titan has many organic molecules, and new modeling by scientists suggests that the underground ocean of the moon could support life that consumes organic materials. Even if there was a microbial life, it would be in very small numbers.
According to scientists, it was thought that due to the large amount of organic material on Titan, there would be no shortage of food sources for potential living organisms.
But the authors of the study concluded that not all organic molecules can be food sources, because the exchange of matter between the underground ocean and the surface where all this organic matter is located is limited.
The core of a new study that reveals a potential scenario for life on Titan is one of the simplest of all organic metabolic processes: fermentation. The process is used to make bread and beer. Fermentation only requires organic molecules, no oxidators such as oxygen.
Fermentation may have developed early in the history of life on earth. That is why scientists suggest that microbes who absorb organic molecules can exist on Titan. In this case, these organic substances from the surface must enter the ocean.
The scientists concentrated on one organic molecule, glycine, the simplest of all known amino acids. Glycine was relatively common in all original matter in the solar system.
But modeling has shown that only a small part of Titan’s organic material can be suitable for microbial consumption.
Microbes who consume glycine in Titan’s ocean would depend on a constant supply of the amino acid of the surface through the thick layer of ice. Scientists believe that asteroid and meteorite effects can help move organic substances from the surface to the ocean, but only in small quantities.
According to scientists, this amount of organic molecules can only be sufficient to support a very small population of microbes. The total weight of such a population can only be a few kilograms. That is, in one liter of water in the vast ocean on Titan, there can be less than one living cell.
That is why finding life on Titan, if it exists in his ocean, will be incredibly difficult. But scientists believe that there can be another mechanism for feeding living organisms on Titan, which means that there are many more.
