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NASA Saturn discovery re-writes biology books

01:10, Monday, 19 February, 2018
NASA Saturn discovery re-writes biology books

NASA has discovered extraterrestrial life forms may be able to flourish in alien waters which could make the space agency redefine their search for life away from Earth.

After confirming the existence in Titan's atmosphere of vinyl cyanide, NASA is trying to recreate the conditions in a lab to prove life could exist on the moon of Saturn.

On Earth, cell membranes are made up of molecular chains that combine phosphorus-oxygen heads and carbon-chain tails that bind to each other and allow them to survive in water, where they thrive on H2O.

Titan’s oceans however are made up of methane, so any cells in the water would have to be made up of nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon.

Previous studies containing these elements have shown that vinyl cyanide was the molecule most likely to form a membrane which could survive like an Earth-based membrane in the oceans of Titan.

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