Question 2: why an astrobiological study of titan will help us understand the origin of life.
For understanding the origin(s) of life on Earth it is essential to search for and study extraterrestrial environments where some of the processes which participated in the emergence of Life on our planet are still occurring. This is one of the goals of astrobiology. In that frame, the study of extraterrestrial organic matter is essential and is certainly not of limited interest regarding prebiotic molecular evolution. Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn and the only planetary body with an atmosphere similar to that of the Earth is one of the places of prime interest for these astrobiological questions. It presents many analogies with the primitive Earth, and is a prebiotic-like laboratory at the planetary scale, where a complex organic chemistry in is currently going on.
Raulin
Francois
F
LISA, CNRS-Universités Paris12 and Paris 7, Créteil, France. raulin@lisa.univ-paris12.fr
D002625:Chemistry, Organic; D004777:Environment; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018559:Exobiology; D055601:Organic Chemistry Phenomena; D000069497:Origin of Life; D018539:Saturn