Tucson AZ (SPX) Oct 11, 2010 Simulating possible chemical processes in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, an international team including University of Arizona graduate student Sarah Horst and Professor Roger Yelle demonstrated the synthesis of complex organic compounds, such as amino acids and nucleotide bases, which are the basic building blocks of life on Earth.
The molecules discovered include the five nucleotide bases used by life on Earth (cytosine, adenine, thymine, guanine and uracil) and the two smallest amino acids, glycine and alanine.
Titan may have building blocks of life
Posted on Thursday, October 14 2010 @ 6:00 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck