The microorganism is called cyclopropanylidine or C3H2, and is composed of carbon and hydrogen. These simple carbon-based molecules can be precursors that contribute to a chemical reaction that can form complex compounds. And those compounds could be the basis for potential life on Titan.
The atom was first discovered by researchers using the Atacama large millimeter / submillimeter array of telescopes in Chile. This radio telescope observatory has captured a series of light signatures that revealed the molecule between the unique chemistry of Titan’s atmosphere.
“When I realized I was looking at cyclopropanylidine, my first thought was, ‘Well, this is really unpredictable,'” Nixon, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement.
Cyclopropanylidene has been found elsewhere around our galaxy, mainly in molecular clouds of gas and dust, including the Taurus molecular cloud. This cloud, where the stars are born, is located 400 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. In these clouds, the temperature is too cold for many chemical reactions to take place.
But finding it in the atmosphere is a different story. These molecules can easily react when they create something new. Researchers discovered it was possible because they were looking at the upper layers of Titan’s atmosphere, where atoms contain fewer gases. Can interact with it.
“Titan is unique in our solar system,” Nixon said. “It has proven to be a treasure trove of new molecules.”
Cyclopropanylidene is the second cyclic or closed-loop molecule discovered in Titan; The first was benzene in 2003. Benzene is an organic chemical compound composed of organic and hydrogen atoms. On Earth, benzene is found in crude oil, used as an industrial chemical and naturally occurring in the wake of volcanic and forest fires.
Cyclic molecules are crucial because they form backbone rings for the nucleus ob bases of DNA, according to NASA.
“The cyclical nature in them opens up this extra branch of chemistry that allows you to build these molecules of biologically important,” Alexander Thalen, an astrobiologist study co-founder at Goddard, said in a statement.
When researchers discovered cyclopropanylidine in Titan’s atmosphere, they looked at data from NASA’s Cassini mission. The spacecraft was flown near Titan’s 127 between 2004 and 2017. Cassini’s mass spectrometer detected the chemical signature of the same molecule, researchers said.
“It’s a very strange little molecule, so it doesn’t happen that you learn about high school chemistry or undergraduate chemistry,” C said. Malaska was not involved in the study, but did research on Titan.
“Every little piece and piece you can find can help you put together a huge puzzle of all the things going on there.”
And the discovery of cyclopropanylidine on Titan exacerbates the lunar conspiracy.
Explore Titan
Scientists compare Titan to Earth because of its unique properties.
Titan has a gaense atmosphere of nitrogen and methane, which gives it a faint orange appearance. Its atmospheric pressure is 60% higher than Earth’s, which means it carries the kind of pressure at the bottom of a swimming pool, according to NASA.
When sunlight touches Titan, the methane and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere break down. This creates an interesting complex organic chemistry in Titan’s atmosphere that has captivated scientists. Researchers are still investigating Cassini’s data to determine what some of the chemical signatures were found in the spacecraft.
Titan also has Earth-like liquids on its surface, but rivers, lakes, and oceans are made up of liquid ethane and methane, which form clouds and bring liquid gas from the sky to rain. Researchers also believe that Titan’s inner liquid water is the ocean.
What’s more, the surface temperature is very cold – minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit – which rivers and lakes were created by methane, the way rocks and lava helped create facilities and channels on Earth.
Mapping by NASA’s Cassini mission revealed that the Titan is mostly covered in organic plains, a plain and a throng of organic matter that falls to the surface.
“We are trying to determine if Titan is fit to live,” Rosalie Lopez, JPL’s senior research scientist and Titan expert, said in a statement. “So we want to know what compounds from the atmosphere come to the surface, and then, whether that material can reach the ocean below through the ice crust, because we think the ocean is where it should be.”
Understanding the organic matter sitting on the surface of Titan can reveal more about the history of the Earth. Initially, our planet’s atmosphere was dominated by methane instead of oxygen. In fact, Early Earth and Titan may be very similar.
Titan will be discovered in the future by NASA’s Dragon Fly Mission. Dragon Fly will start in 2026 and reach Titan in 2034.
A Mars rover-sized drone will fly out of Titan’s thick atmosphere to visit Effect Crater, where researchers believe the vital elements for life merged into Titan in the past when something might have hit thousands of years ago.
The Dragon Fly will spend another year flying around Titan. It only has propellers, with skids to swim the land but no wheels to rotate it on any surface. The mission will also explore Titan’s atmosphere, surface properties, oceans and fluids on Earth.
“We think of Titan as a real-life laboratory where we can see chemistry similar to that of ancient Earth,” said Melissa Trainer, NASA’s Goddard astrobiologist and deputy principal observer of the Dragonfly Mission, in a statement.
“We’ll find molecules larger than C3H2,” Trainer said, “but to understand the chemical reactions that complex organic molecules get to the surface and rain falls on, we need to know what’s going on in the atmosphere.”
.
