Would They Be Called Titanians?

(Artist's rendering of the 2005 landing of Huygens probe on Titan)

For those of you fascinated by the possibility extraterrestrial life, word is circulating quickly of new studies on Titan, one of the moons that orbits Saturn. These studies, which are being reported by ScienceNews, as well as being a topic of discussion on today's Science Friday, indicate that some form of life may be taking in compounds that are created in Titan's atmosphere in a respiration-like process.

Using spectrometry data from the Cassini spacecraft (which I've written about before in another post), along with some fancy computer modeling, researchers have discovered that compounds that were expected to be found on or near the surface of the moon are generally absent. One way of explaining this phenomenon is that organisms living on the surface are consuming these compounds. This sounds vague and somewhat implausable, but it seem to be a reasonable hypothesis. The reason that this theory holds water is that two separate studies were performed that examined separate compounds. The compounds, acetylene, ethane, and hydrogen make up a kind of bizarre-O version of Earth's nitrogen cycle, wherein methane and acetylene are broken down by UV radiation in the atmosphere to form various byproducts, including hydrogen and more acetylene (from the breakdown of methane). The heavier compounds then fall down toward the surface of the moon, where they are unexpectedly absent from spectral analysis. The reason? Maybe, just maybe, organisms on the surface of the planet are gobbling those molecules up for food. It's also unclear how the initial compounds are reconstituted in the atmosphere, which could also be handily explained by a respiration-ish process; kind of like how we help reconstitute carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere as we exhale.

Pretty wild stuff.

All in all, I thought these studies were pretty cool. I haven't had a chance to listen to the SciFri podcast from today's show, but I'm looking forward to checking it out. I have to admit, though, that my fascination with alien life is pretty lacking. In fact, when asked if I believe that there is life beyond our planet, I've replied with a meager shrug and a poorly enunciated 'I dunno,' which sounded more like 'uh-Uh-uh.' It certainly is the stuff of inspiration and awe for many, but I'll save my concern for when we find out that the alien life that we've been searching for looks something like this:
I just hope that, when that day comes, Sigourney Weaver is up to the challenge...