Saturn's moon Titan is perhaps the best bet in the solar system of finding life, researchers have hypothesized since evidence of liquids was found on its surface. With its thick atmosphere, albeit made of gases that would kill humans almost instantly, the natural satellite is 80 times more massive than the Moon, and is the second largest planetary satellite in the system, after Jupiter's Ganymede. According to new investigations, the liquid hydrocarbon lakes on its surface could make the ideal conditions for the development of prebiotic-like chemistry, which could eventually lead to life, Space informs.

The lakes, which were confirmed by direct observations from the Cassini-Huygens mission, most likely hold vast amounts of methane and ethane, which are almost entirely made of hydrogen and carbon. These are the main building blocks of life, researchers say, and especially carbon, which is the basis for our own life chemicals. Additionally, Titan's lakes are also influenced by direct hits from high-energy cosmic rays, which could act as catalysts in triggering reactions similar to the ones that potentially took place in our planet's “primordial soup,” when the first organisms appeared from combined inorganic matter.

“I found that the result is very dependent on the chemical composition of the lakes. If certain chemicals are missing, then the lake could freeze or dry out. But if the lake is composed of a mixture of ethane, methane and nitrogen, the lake can exist for many years and provide a medium for prebiotic-like chemistry,” University of Cologne Planetary Scientist Tetsuya Tokano, from the University's headquarters, in Germany, explained. His study on these possibilities appears in the March issue of the respected scientific journal Astrobiology.

One of the main things that the Cassini space probe now needs to establish is the depth of the lakes, which were mostly identified in the polar regions of Titan. However, subsequent flybys using the RADAR instrument were unable to determine this trait, despite sustained efforts. Cassini is a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), designed to analyze Saturn and its moons.

“I hope that there will be future probes, but this may take 20 or 30 years. I would like to know the depth of the lakes, and the exact chemical composition. In principle, if we have a future mission to Titan, a probe which lands on the lake itself, it should be possible,” Tokano added.