Ocean world near Saturn hotter-than-ever contender for life

All of the ingredients necessary for life are available Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

While Cassini is reaching the end of its life, NASA has already confirmed that it will be sending a probe to Europa, another “ocean world” orbiting Jupiter that has numerous same characteristics as Enceladus.

Composite map of the south pole of Saturnian moon Enceladus.

But Enceladus is not the only celestial body hiding the building blocks of life.

The hydrogen in the sub-surface ocean could combine with carbon dioxide molecules in a process known as “methanogenesis”, which creates a byproduct of methane.

Lead scientist Dr Hunter Waite said the result showed the moon’s environment would be “like a candy store for microbes” with a constant and plentiful food source. Only phosphorous and sulfur have not been detected by Cassini, but scientists suspect the moon’s rocky core could contain those two elements. It’s completely covered in ice on the surface and scientists believe underneath that ice is an ocean.

“This is truly an exciting time for us to be able to probe those and really try to understand what’s happening in these ocean worlds”, said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division for NASA, during Thursday’s conference.

Icy plumes can be seen emanating from the “bottom” of Enceladus.

Life as we know it requires three primary ingredients: liquid water; a source of energy for metabolism; and the right chemical ingredients, primarily carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. But it could be the closest we’ve come yet, and it’s definitely reason to celebrate if you’re excited by the idea of extraterrestrial life. In October 2015, NASA sent its Cassini spacecraft diving through the geysers jetting from Enceladus. Some researchers even argue that life on Earth arose at hydrothermal vents.

“Here on Earth there are a number of things that protect life”. Simple Earth organisms eat methane and excrete carbon dioxide, reports Sputnik. The high volume of hydrogen is a puzzle, as are spikes in its abundance, but it is not the only evidence of seafloor activity on Enceladus. If the plumes really do exist, they could provide scientists with samples of Europa’s seawater. “Future missions to explore oceans beyond Earth will answer many of these questions”.

“I think conditions for habitability are kind of nailed down”, Waite said. Additionally, researchers revealed findings of new evidence suggesting plumes are erupting from Jupiter’s moon Europa.

NASA’s new discoveries stem from the Hubble space telescope and the Cassini probe, which is scheduled to commit suicide this summer in the clouds of Saturn.

Whatever the space mission finds will be interesting.

“We’re looking in a way that we never thought possible before for environments in our solar system which may harbor life today”. “If it doesn’t exist, and all the ingredients are there, why doesn’t it exist?”