Researchers have suspected for some time that there may be alien life beneath the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. A new analysis of data from the Cassini spacecraft shows that ingredients necessary for the origins of life (as we know it) are present there.
It was already known that Saturn’s moon Enceladus spews enormous clouds of ice grains and water vapor, rich in organic compounds, thousands of kilometers into space. Thanks to more refined analyses, researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, have now found hydrogen cyanide in it – a molecule that is important for the origin of life. They also found evidence of the presence of complex compounds such as acetylene and propylene.
Geysers with “fuel for organisms”
And they found evidence that the ocean that hides beneath Enceladus’ icy outer layer and feeds the massive water vapor geysers contains several organic compounds, some of which serve as “fuel for organisms” on our Earth. The researchers report this in a study recently published in the journal ‘Nature Astronomy’.
“Our work provides evidence that Enceladus harbors some of the key molecules needed for both creating the building blocks of life (the amino acids) and sustaining that life through metabolic reactions,” said the lead author of the research. Jonah Peter, who conducted much of the relevant research at JPL, is quoted on the website of the American space agency NASA.
‘Swiss army knife’ among amino acid precursors
“The discovery of hydrogen cyanide was particularly exciting because it is the starting point for most theories about the origin of life,” says Peter. Life as we know it requires building blocks such as amino acids, and hydrogen cyanide is one of the most important and versatile molecules needed to form amino acids. Because the latter can be synthesized in many different ways, the study authors describe hydrogen cyanide as the ‘Swiss army knife’ of amino acid precursors.
Enceladus has a diameter of only 500 kilometers
Saturn’s moon Enceladus is approximately spherical and has a diameter of about 500 kilometers. It’s not the only moon where evidence of a subsurface ocean has been found. Astronomers also suspect hidden seas beneath the ice of Jupiter’s satellites Ganymede, Europa and Callisto, as well as in Saturn’s moon Titan and other icy moons. They are considered promising locations for the search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system.
The probe burned up in Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017
‘Cassini’ was launched in 1997 and entered orbit around Saturn seven years later. At the end of its mission, the probe dived 22 times between the planet and its rings – an area where no probe had ever gone before – and finally burned up in a controlled manner in the planet’s atmosphere in September 2017.
Source: Krone
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