Life on Titan?

http://www.macroevolution.net/life-on-titan.html



Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft has led to the production of two new papers scrutinizing the complex chemical activity on Saturn's moon Titan. These chemical signatures can be possibly explained by non-biological chemistry, but some scientists say that they fulfill two important conditions for "Methane-based life". One of these findings is now online in the scientific journal Icarus, which shows hydrogen flowing from the atmosphere down to the surface and disappearing, and a lack of acetylene. This is important because acetylene would most likely be the energy source for methane-based life, and hydrogen would be consumed much like oxygen here on Earth. Substitutes for water have been proposed, such as liquid methane and related molecules such as ethane. While there are several non-biological explanations for these findings, it is still exciting to the scientific community that there may be extraterrestrial life within our own solar system.

I think that these new findings are exciting, both to the scientific community and to me. This would prove that biological processes can exist without the presence of water, which would open up entire fields of science. If there are actually organisms that are composed of liquid methane and breath hydrogen, the possibilities for life are endless. Even though keeping our hopes up would be a foolhardy move in this case, it is still an intriguing end to the question: Is there life beyond our own?