Methane-based Life Forms Can Survive On Titan

An artist's impression of the only spacecraft, Huygens to land on Titan. 

Researchers have stated that Titan, which is Saturn’s moon, can harbor life. They added that a large amount of methane present on Titan’s surface can easily form oxygen free cells.

This new study by the researchers from the Cornell University, challenges current theories which state that we should only look for alien life within the habitable zone of a remote star, rather than on icy space objects such as Titan.

According to the astronomers, the habitable zone of a star, also known as the Goldilocks zone, is an area within a solar system where planets can have liquid water on its surface, i.e. the zone is neither too hot nor too cold for water to evaporate, or, in the latter case, freeze.

However, the researchers who have an expertise in chemical engineering and astronomy speculate that primitive cells that are permeable to liquid methane and do not necessarily require oxygen to survive may dwell on Titan. They modeled a `different` type of life form – which is oxygen-free and methane-based – that can metabolize and reproduce similar to life on earth.