Saturn’s moon Titan harbors a key chemical ingredient that may allow organisms to exist on this distant, chilly world. Astronomers have spotted a molecule in Titan’s atmosphere that could be instrumental in the formation of cells, which are a crucial building block of life. That means the molecule — and possibly some form of cellular life — might be located on the moon’s surface as well.
Researchers have suspected for a while that Titan might have this compound, called vinyl cyanide. NASA’s Cassini probe, which has been exploring the Saturn system for 13 years, found hints of the molecule when sniffing out the moon’s atmosphere, but its measurements haven’t been conclusive. Now, astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or...
