Scientists have discovered that the molecular building blocks needed for life are “easy to obtain” in Saturn’s ice moon enceladus.
At just 314 miles (505 kilometres) wide, Enceladus was able to fit within Colorado. It could potentially host extraterrestrial lifespan thanks to liquid water, hydrothermal energy sources and chemical toolkits.
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However, most of these past studies have seen relatively old ice grains that have settled in Saturn’s E-ring (the diffuse ring outside the bright main ring of the planet) after being kicked out decades or centuries ago. This meant that scientists were unable to be sure the compounds really came from Enceladus, not from the cosmic weathering of the ring.
Currently, astronomers are identifying organic molecules that are likely to contain nitrogen and oxygen, in fresh ice grains sprayed from Saturn’s ice moon. The new study was published on Wednesday (October 1) in the Nature Astronomy Journal.
The secret of the ice moon
In 2008, when Cassini shot and killed a newly spitted ice-grained geyser from Enceladus, he collected data from the splatter covering the spacecraft’s space dust analyzer. These grains hit the spacecraft at 11 miles per second (18 kilometers per second). This meant that the team could see “previously hidden signals,” a study by Nozea Kawaja, a planetary scientist at the Free University of Berlin, said in a statement.
The researchers used mass spectrometry to analyze the chemical fingerprints of fresh ice grain molecules. They discovered compounds that are involved on Earth in reactions that lead to the formation of complex molecules needed for life, including structures that may contain nitrogen and oxygen.
“These molecules discovered in newly ejected materials prove that the complex organic molecule Cassini detected in the E-ring of Saturn is not merely a product of long exposure to space, but are easily available in the Enceladus sea.”
Nozair said there are a variety of ways in which these molecules are biologically relevant, “enhancing the likelihood that the moon is habitable.” Still, he said that it would be a major discovery that one cannot find life in Enceladus, as it raises “serious questions about why life does not exist in such an environment when the appropriate conditions are there.”
The ESA plans a future mission to land spacecraft in Enceladus’ Antarctic to collect more samples. Agents are targeting the early 2040s as the early launch date possible.
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