Acrylonitrile has been definitively found in the atmosphere of Titan

[Spaceception]

Now, why is this such a big deal? Well, acrylonitrile is thought to be the best candidate for a molecule on Titan that could form the basis of cell membranes on the hazy moon. And because it constantly rains methane, there could be an abundance of this stuff in Titan's seas, and potentially life.

Obviously, we will need many more studies, and possibly orbiters/landers, but we are one step closer to confirming the existence or lack thereof, of life on another body in the solar system.

Additional reading: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-finds-moon-of-saturn-has-chemical-that-could-form-membranes

 

What do you guys think? Does this make you more optimistic about the prospects of life there?

[cubinator]

Interesting, but I want to see live cells before cracking out the champagne, so to speak. Which means lake probes.

Edited July 28, 2017 by cubinator

[Ultimate Steve]

3 hours ago, cubinator said:

Interesting, but I want to see live cells before cracking out the champagne, so to speak. Which means lake probes.

Risky idea: lake science probe inside heat shield/aeroshell attached to propulsion section, all inside another aerocapture shell which will be used to get into Jupiter orbit, with a larger interplanetary power module all lofted by Falcon Heavy.

Yeah, I can dream...

[cubinator]

18 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Risky idea: lake science probe inside heat shield/aeroshell attached to propulsion section, all inside another aerocapture shell which will be used to get into Jupiter orbit, with a larger interplanetary power module all lofted by Falcon Heavy.

Yeah, I can dream...

You're going to have some problems if you send your Titan probe into Jupiter orbit...  

[Spaceception]

7 minutes ago, cubinator said:

You're going to have some problems if you send your Titan probe into Jupiter orbit...  

Hahaha

[Just Jim]

3 hours ago, cubinator said:

Interesting, but I want to see live cells before cracking out the champagne, so to speak.

Agreed... but this does appear to be a nice step in the right direction!  

[cubinator]

Just now, Just Jim said:

Agreed... but this does appear to be a nice step in the right direction!  

Quite true. It would possibly help the prospects of a more in-depth mission to Titan in the near future.

[Ultimate Steve]

1 hour ago, cubinator said:

You're going to have some problems if you send your Titan probe into Jupiter orbit...  

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Brain fart. Saturn, of course.

No, I forgot to mention the third aeroshell which has negative air resistance and would accelerate by going through Jupiter's atmposphere. The second one would obviously be for Saturn... 

Man, I must be either really tired or really distracted...

Now I'm having daydreams of someone telling me Titan orbits Neptune or something...

[YNM]

Plastic-based life ?

 

I imagine they must be very fragile ! I mean, at temperatures where methane almost solidifes/melt, surely ?

Edited July 29, 2017 by YNM

[kerbiloid]

At last some planet will give us a hand of friendship

Spoiler

 

_{(acrylonitrile one)}

 

[Cabbink]

My feeling on life on titan is it will probably be some sort of cell or, much more unlikely, a slow swimming(low gravity and Methane is a lot less dense.) And slow thinking (low gravity, less energy) fishes. If the titan ocean probe finds anything when snapping some pics, sees a fish... 

I have a feeling that a lot of fishers will volunteer to go to titan to fish all of those fish to extinction.

Oh yeah, it would also re-form our thought of exolife.

[K^2]

There will be no fish on Titan. The available energy flux is nowhere enough for that level of competition. We're talking colonies of very slow, very simple bacteria in the best case scenario.

I still think that makes Titan the most important exploration target in the Solar System. A place where life is definitely possible, as far as we know, and where if we find it, it would confirm two distinct origins of life forms in a single star system. And if we find nothing interesting there at all, it will help us better define our understanding of what is and is not habitable.

[Green Baron]

Much on life forming has been discussed heartily in this thread:

 

[magnemoe]

4 hours ago, K^2 said:

There will be no fish on Titan. The available energy flux is nowhere enough for that level of competition. We're talking colonies of very slow, very simple bacteria in the best case scenario.

I still think that makes Titan the most important exploration target in the Solar System. A place where life is definitely possible, as far as we know, and where if we find it, it would confirm two distinct origins of life forms in a single star system. And if we find nothing interesting there at all, it will help us better define our understanding of what is and is not habitable.

This, both the energy flux and the total energy would be an huge constrain, all reactions would be slow, it would not be enough energy to support an large ecosystem either. 
Life and evolution would be so slow it would be unlikely with anything other than primitive bacteria. 

[kerbiloid]

Basis of cell membranes is nice.

Let them reproduce other stuff.

(Main part of a cell breathing, briefly)

Spoiler