Titan (Photo : Reuters)
Some aspects of Saturn's moon Titan, such as its freezing temperatures and methane lakes and seas do not seem ideal for supporting life. However, some researchers at Cornell University have combined science and imagination to imagine how aliens might be able to live on Titan.
The research team consisted of astronomers and chemical engineers from the university, according to Popular Science. Their work is published in the newest issue of Science Advances.
On planet Earth, an outer membrane exists on living cells. It is made up of a "lipid bilayer," a wall that separates water-based fluids inside the cells, from fluids outside the cells.
The theory of the researchers is that the aliens might possess methane-based cells, rather than lipid cells. These cells would allow them to survive in temperatures that are below zero-hundreds of degrees below it.
If life could be based on this type of cell, this would greatly increase the region around a sun that lifeforms could inhabit. That is because the cells would be oxygen-free.
The researchers found something fascinating about their membrane that was nitrogen-based. It was just as stable and flexible as lipsome, a water-based membrane that is contained in Earth's organic cells.
Scientists refer to these theoretical outer cells as "azotosome," or its easier-to-remember name: "nitrogen body." This nitrogen body would contain molecules of nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen. They are all contained in Titan's frigid seas.
These "alien cells" would next test how they could survive in an environment that was methane-based. Interestingly, NASA is working on a mission that would collect samples of Titan's organics, according to Forbes.
This all sounds like something from an episode of "X-Files." But it could turn out to be more science nonfiction than science fiction.
