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The Hubble image features the spiral galaxy NGC 3285B, along with numerous other members of the Hydra I galaxy cluster.NASA Hubble Mission Team (NASA Science)
NASA’s Hubble and Chandra teamed up to identify a new possible example of a rare class of black holes, called an intermediate-mass black hole.NASA Hubble Mission Team (NASA Science)
NASA’s Ames Research Center invited pilots to test how a mixed reality flight simulation would perform in the world’s largest flight simulator.Hillary Smith (NASA)
The GRUVE (Glenn Reconfigurable User-Interface and Virtual Reality Exploration) Lab is located within the GVIS Lab at NASA Glenn Research Center.Ann Koppitch (NASA)
Written by Deborah Padgett, MSL OPGS Task Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion LaboratoryMars Science Laboratory Mission Team Members (NASA Science)
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NASA Glenn teamed up with the University of Leicester to test a new type of RPS heat source fuel for future long-duration journeys to extreme space environments.Kelly M. Matter (NASA)
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NASA's Athena Economical Payload Integration Cost mission, or Athena EPIC, is a test launch for an innovative, scalable space vehicle design to support futureCharles G. Hatfield (NASA)
In the vacuum of space, the reality is fuel can easily overheat from onboard systems, solar radiation, and spacecraft exhaust. The solution is a method called cryogenic fluid management,Lee Mohon (NASA)
A massive, spacetime-warping cluster of galaxies is the setting of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The galaxy cluster in question isNASA
This Hubble image features the globular cluster NGC 1786, located roughly 160,000 light-years away from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud.NASA Hubble Mission Team (NASA Science)
NASA's X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has officially begun taxi tests, marking the first time this one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft has movedNASA
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If you live in the Northern Hemisphere and look up during July evenings, you’ll see the brilliant star Vega shining overhead. Did you know that VegaKat Troche (NASA Science)
A star is unleashing a barrage of X-rays that is causing a closely-orbiting, young exoplanet to wither away an astonishing rate.NASA
NASA’s new TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission will study magnetic reconnection, answering key questions about how it shapes the impacts of the Sun and space weather on our daily lives.Desiree Apodaca (NASA Science)
For more information, visit: https://grabcad.com/challenges/ejection-mechanism-design-for-the-speed-test-architectureSarah Douglas (NASA)
Sylvie Crowell has received a NASA Early Career Initiative award for lunar dust mitigation research.Kelly M. Matter (NASA)
Glenn joins in the celebration of Omaha’s Diamond Anniversary hosting the NCAA Men’s College World Series.Kelly M. Matter (NASA)
NASA Glenn technicians test student experiments during the 2.2 Second Drop Tower Challenge.Kelly M. Matter (NASA)
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NASA SCoPE is a NASA-funded initiative at Arizona State University that connects early career scientists with NASA Science Activation (SciAct) program teamsNASA Science Editorial Team (NASA Science)
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A previously unexplored globular cluster glitters with multicolored stars in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. Globular clusters like thisNASA
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Astronomers with NASA’s IXPE have uncovered new evidence to explain how pulsing remnants of exploded stars interact with surrounding matter deep in the cosmos.Beth Ridgeway (NASA)
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Hydrocarbon lake and methane rain clouds on Titan
Jenny McElligott/eMITS
NASA research has shown that cell-like compartments called vesicles could form naturally in the lakes of Saturn’s moon Titan.
Titan is the only world apart from Earth that is known to have liquid on its surface. However, Titan’s lakes and seas are not filled with water. Instead, they contain liquid hydrocarbons like ethane and methane.
On Earth, liquid water is thought to have been essential for the origin of life as we know it. Many astrobiologists have wondered whether Titan’s liquids could also provide an environment for the formation of the molecules required for life – either as we know it or perhaps as we don’t know it – to take hold there.
New NASA research, published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, outlines a process by which stable vesicles might form on Titan, based on our current knowledge of the moon’s atmosphere and chemistry. The formation of such compartments is an important step in making the precursors of living cells (or protocells).
The process involves molecules called amphiphiles, which can self-organize into vesicles under the right conditions. On Earth, these polar molecules have two parts, a hydrophobic (water-fearing) end and a hydrophilic (water-loving) end. When they are in water, groups of these molecules can bunch together and form ball-like spheres, like soap bubbles, where the hydrophilic part of the molecule faces outward to interact with the water, thereby ‘protecting’ the hydrophobic part on the inside of the sphere. Under the right conditions, two layers can form creating a cell-like ball with a bilayer membrane that encapsulates a pocket of water on the inside.
When considering vesicle formation on Titan, however, the researchers had to take into account an environment vastly different from the early Earth.
Huygens captured this aerial view of Titan from an altitude of 33,000 feet.
ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and the second largest in our solar system. Titan is also the only moon in our solar system with a substantial atmosphere.
The hazy, golden atmosphere of Titan kept the moon shrouded in mystery for much of human history. However, when NASA’s Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, our views of Titan changed forever.
Thanks to Cassini, we now know Titan has a complex meteorological cycle that actively influences the surface today. Most of Titan’s atmosphere is nitrogen, but there is also a significant amount of methane (CH4). This methane forms clouds and rain, which falls to the surface to cause erosion and river channels, filling up the lakes and seas. This liquid then evaporates in sunlight to form clouds once again.
This atmospheric activity also allows for complex chemistry to happen. Energy from the Sun breaks apart molecules like methane, and the pieces then reform into complex organic molecules. Many astrobiologists believe that this chemistry could teach us how the molecules necessary for the origin of life formed and evolved on the early Earth.
The new study considered how vesicles might form in the freezing conditions of Titan’s hydrocarbon lakes and seas by focusing on sea-spray droplets, thrown upwards by splashing raindrops. On Titan, both spray droplets and the sea surface could be coated in layers of amphiphiles. If a droplet then lands on the surface of a pond, the two layers of amphiphiles meet to form a double-layered (or bilayer) vesicle, enclosing the original droplet. Over time, many of these vesicles would be dispersed throughout the pond and would interact and compete in an evolutionary process that could lead to primitive protocells.
If the proposed pathway is happening, it would increase our understanding of the conditions in which life might be able to form.
“The existence of any vesicles on Titan would demonstrate an increase in order and complexity, which are conditions necessary for the origin of life,” explains Conor Nixon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We’re excited about these new ideas because they can open up new directions in Titan research and may change how we search for life on Titan in the future.”
NASA’s first mission to Titan is the upcoming Dragonfly rotorcraft, which will explore the surface of the Saturnian moon. While Titan’s lakes and seas are not a destination for Dragonfly (and the mission won’t carry the light-scattering instrument required to detect such vesicles), the mission will fly from location to location to study the moon’s surface composition, make atmospheric and geophysical measurements, and characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment.
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
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GEER is a world-class facility designed to simulate extreme environments.NASA
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This image, taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on July 14, 2015, is the most accurate natural color image of Pluto. This natural-color image resultsNASA
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