How to find life on other planets: a new method express
A chemical detective searches for life on other planets. Its tool is a mass spectrometer that identifies molecules by weight (the same device earthly forensic scientists use to analyze clues). Scientists equipped the detective to look for 56 telltale molecules: carbon chains of amino acids (protein building blocks), nucleobases (DNA letters), and fatty acids (the basis of fats).
The first test — Titan's haze. In its laboratory analog, phenylalanine (an amino acid key to proteins) and a multitude of fatty acids were found for the first time — a hint that complex chemistry is possible without life. In Martian gypsum from the Qaidam Desert, amino acids were neatly divided into biotic and abiotic, like fingerprints. Fatty acids, however, acted like double agents — they didn't reveal the secret.
So, the best guide is amino acids. They don't lie. Such a detective will fly to Mars to read the chemical chronicle of other worlds.
Titan is the only place in the Solar System, besides Earth, with a dense atmosphere and surface liquid (methane lakes), and its aerosol haze resembles smog, from which organic molecules can arise.
In the novel 'Solaris', the planet's ocean creates complex structures on its own — much like Titan's atmosphere inadvertently 'sculpts' amino acids.