Posted on Thursday, October 14 2010 @ 6:00 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Space Daily
reports the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, could be a reservoir of prebiotic molecules that could serve as the springboard to life. The research suggests that the first ingredients of life on our planet may have formed from a primordial haze high in Earth's atmosphere, without requiring liquid water nor a surface.
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.
