Scientists made the discovery while observing Titan’s atmosphere using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile’s Atacama desert. “A single 3 minute observation revealed organic molecules that are askew in the atmosphere of Titan,” Universe Today explains. “The molecules in question should be smoothly distributed across the atmosphere, but they are not.”
A National Radio Astronomy Observatory press release calls this a “potentially groundbreaking discovery.”
Universe Today points out that, “When one hears there is a strange, skewed combination of organic compounds somewhere, the first thing to come to mind is life.” So far, researchers don’t have an obvious explanation for the discovery. But they are exploring other possible causes.
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