Titan, Saturn’s moon, is a great candidate to support life because it’s the only other body in the Solar System that has stable liquids on its surface and a dense atmosphere.
Giving hope to scientists, beneath the surface lies an ocean of liquid water.
The liquid present on the surface is methane. Methane, a gas on Earth, exists as a liquid on Titan because of the frigid temperatures.
Methane is a class of chemicals called a hydrocarbon (made of only hydrogen and carbon). There are bacteria on Earth that can exist in a hydrocarbon and water. This is where the search for life is focused, on bacteria that can exist in these type of conditions.
The search for life on Titan has been brought into the forefront because scientists have recently completed a map of Saturn’s moon. The United States is set to launch a mission to Titan in seven years, with plans to reach the surface and inspect it with a drone beginning in 2034.
If I were to use this current event to influence a book, I would steer clear of the discovery of alien life. It’s too open-ended, and played out. Pair that with the fact that the only real life which could be found there are bacteria and it seems like there wouldn’t be much material for an alien-life type thriller.
BUT, if there was an ultra-specialized bacteria, one that say, made light from methane, what would happen? Could this bacteria somehow be introduced to cows, causing the escape of their natural gases, through flatulence and belching, to glow in the night? This wouldn’t be a serious book, more of a young adult style sci-fi, but it could be fun to play with the concept.
Or, I would come up with another unique property of the bacteria discovered by scientists, and come up with a thriller-esque story about the way it was released into the world.. knowing me, it would cause the collapse or inversion of society.
