Are Titan’s Lakes Teeming with Primitive Cells?

Could exotic lifeforms be brewing on Titan? Saturn’s largest moon is covered with the carbon-based building blocks of life and is the only place that we know of besides Earth with large lakes on its surface – made from super-chilled methane instead of water. In 2017, NASA discovered that Titan’s thick, hazy atmosphere contains acrylonitrile, a lipid-like molecule that could cluster together within the moon’s lakes to form vesicles. These hollow spheres strongly resemble cell membranes on Earth, but a follow-up study determined that vesicles would be unlikely to form on Titan without an additional source of energy, casting doubt on their emergence. Now, a recent study coauthored by NASA shows that the missing spark could come from rainfall. Learn more: https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/astrobiology/path-toward-protocells-on-titan/ Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Dan Gallagher: Producer/Writer Christian Mayer: Scientist Conor Nixon: Scientist Katy Mersmann: Host/Writer Kim Dongjae: Lead Animator Jenny McElligott: Animator Wes Buchanan: Animator Jonathan North: Animator Dan Gallagher: Animator Michael Lentz: Art Director Walt Feimer: Project Coordinator Caela Barry: Support Lonnie Shekhtman: Support Aaron E. Lepsch: Technical Support Universal Production Music: “Perpetual Resonance” by Lee John Gretton [PRS] This video can be freely shared and downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14951/. Individual animations from this video can be downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20411/. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14951/. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/. If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/NASAGoddard Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard · X: http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASAGoddard · Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc