Forbes alerts us to work by scientists at Cornell, who are excited about the possibility of life in the freezing liquid methane seas and lakes of Saturn’s moon Titan. Well, life in a certain sense.

The team theorized that Titan might be able to harbor methane-based, oxygen-free cells. They conceived a cell membrane made up of nitrogen compounds capable of functioning in liquid methane at temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero. Given this much lower freezing point for cells based on methane rather than water, if life based on such a cell were possible, it would greatly expand the zone of potential habitability around a star that scientists generally consider the most likely to harbor life on other worlds.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that their methane cell with a nitrogen-based membrane — which they dubbed an "azotosome" based on the French word for nitrogen, azote — showed the same stability and flexibility as a liposome, the corresponding water-based membrane found in organic cells on Earth.

The next step for these homegrown "alien" cells would be to see how they might function in a methane-based environment.

Study co-author Jonathan Lunine of Cornell says he dreams of "someday sending a probe to float on the seas of this amazing moon (Titan) and directly sampling the organics."

As it turns out, NASA is already working on just such a mission.

Ah, so NASA is on top of this one, and there’s a link to an animation from the space agency to stimulate the imagination, and loosen the pocketbook.

The original paper in Science Advances is open access. The Abstract reads:

The lipid bilayer membrane, which is the foundation of life on Earth, is not viable outside of biology based on liquid water. This fact has caused astronomers who seek conditions suitable for life to search for exoplanets within the "habitable zone," the narrow band in which liquid water can exist. However, can cell membranes be created and function at temperatures far below those at which water is a liquid? We take a step toward answering this question by proposing a new type of membrane, composed of small organic nitrogen compounds, that is capable of forming and functioning in liquid methane at cryogenic temperatures. Using molecular simulations, we demonstrate that these membranes in cryogenic solvent have an elasticity equal to that of lipid bilayers in water at room temperature. As a proof of concept, we also demonstrate that stable cryogenic membranes could arise from compounds observed in the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon, Titan, known for the existence of seas of liquid methane on its surface.

We went over there to see what other features of Earth cells — still the only cells we actually know about — they were able to simulate. Imagine our surprise when the number of other features turned out to be zero. Readers can confirm this and check out the key point, namely, the biological unreality of these "vesicles," for themselves.

So maybe bubbles with nitrogen-based membranes could form on Titan. Exciting, right? Get out your checkbook, U.S Congress. Coming up: a search across the Solar System for stone-cold dead BUBBLES.

Bubbles and balloons — great for a your kid’s next birthday party, if only you could keep them from freezing solid in an instant. Yes, exploring Titan would be fascinating. Not for the cells that may exist there, however.

Image by NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona / University of Idaho [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.