NASA scientists have found that cell-like compartments called vesicles, needed to form the precursors of living cells, could form in the lakes of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
These lakes and Titan's seas are filled with liquid hydrocarbons like ethane and methane rather than water. And though we know water is a key ingredient of life on Earth, astrobiologists have theorized that Titan's liquid hydrocarbons could allow the molecules needed for life to form, whether that life is similar to what we see on Earth or a very different form of life.
