Life May Develop in Methane's Habitable Zone

Since the beginning of our efforts to discover alien life on other worlds, a lot of the effort has been focused on discovering exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zones of their stars. But what awaits discovery if we look in the habitable zone of methane?

What astronomers are focused on is planets in an area where temperatures are just right for the existence of liquid water. But what if they looked in areas where temperatures were appropriate for the existence of liquid methane? Couldn't this chemical replace water as the main chemical for other lifeforms?

The example of Titan immediately springs to mind. Liquid methane and ethane were discovered here in 1944, and confirmed in 2004. The world is larger than Mercury, and studies have shown that its atmosphere contains large amounts of organic molecules.

Astronomers say that the moon is one of the prime targets for finding life in the solar system in places other than Earth. Discovering life on Titan would finally indicate the life may be based on other chemicals than water, Space reports.