Overview

• Titan is the only body in the solar system besides Earth known to host stable methane–ethane lakes and a photochemically active atmosphere that produces complex organic molecules.
• A new peer-reviewed model published in the International Journal of Astrobiology shows how amphiphiles generated by sunlight-driven methane breakdown could accumulate in Titan’s lakes.
• The study proposes that methane rain generates sea-spray droplets coated in amphiphiles that coalesce on the lake surface into bilayer vesicles encapsulating hydrocarbon droplets.
• Detecting such vesicles would indicate an increase in molecular order and complexity required for protocell precursors and suggest non-water-based pathways for life.
• NASA’s Dragonfly mission, due to launch in 2028, will characterize Titan’s surface and atmosphere but lacks instruments to identify vesicles, highlighting the need for dedicated lake-sampling missions.