While astronomers, geologists, and physicists breathlessly await the results of the experiments performed on the European Space Agency's (ESA) Huygens space probe, which plummeted through the atmosphere of the Saturnian moon Titan on Friday (January 14), astrobiologists might have the most to learn.

Although no one expects life to exist at -180 degrees Celsius (-280 degrees Fahrenheit) on Titan, the moon promises to be a treasure trove for the study of organic chemistry outside of Earth. "Titan is a planet-sized Miller–Urey experiment in progress for a hundred million years," Christopher Chyba, who holds the Carl Sagan Chair at the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI), told The Scientist, referring to the 1950s experiment in which compounds thought to be the building blocks of life were placed into a beaker and stimulated with electricity.

Since 1944, when Gerard Kuiper first determined that Titan had a thick, methane-filled atmosphere, astronomers have known that its hydrocarbons, catalyzed by sunlight, are creating organic chemistry reactions. Chyba, who is not involved in the mission, said that in an astrobiology workshop he ran several years ago, participants were asked to rank the priorities of the different experiments to be performed by Huygens. "All they wanted to know about was the biochemistry experimental data," he said.

So far, that data hasn't been released. But it could be a treasure trove for anyone interested in the origins of life. A 17.3-kilogram mass spectrometer/gas chromatograph device now sits on the spongy surface of Titan and took more than 70 minutes worth of samples. There are lots of questions which that data might be able to answer, H. Jay Melosh, an astrobiologist at the University of Arizona, told The Scientist. "What is the methane reacting with? What are the concentrations at different altitudes?" It's possible, says Melosh, that the MS/GC package will pick up amines, assuming they exist on Titan. And that, he says, leads to the biggest astrobiological question of all: Are there amino acids on Titan?

The initial summary of the MS/GC data will be released sometime this week, an ESA spokesperson told The Scientist. The raw data, however, will endure the standard ESA 12-month embargo period.

Meanwhile, astrobiologists will have to be satisfied with the stunning pictures of the surface of Titan relayed by Huygens and released to the public. At first, Martin Tomasko, the University of Arizona–based principal investigator of the imaging team, speculated during a televised commentary that the large bluish shoreline implied a lake. But when the first image returned from the probe on the ground, it wasn't sitting in liquid, but 16 centimeters deep into a spongy bog. Water ice pebbles surround the landing site.

The surface consists of a "…a thin crust, followed by a region of relatively uniform consistency," the principal investigator of the surface science package, John Zarnecki, of the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, told a press conference on Saturday (January 15). He likened the surface to crème brulee, "but I don't suppose that will be appearing in any of our papers."