Researchers Have Just Found Signs Of Life On One Of Saturn's Moons

 

Our earth is the undisputed jewel of the solar system teeming with millions of species of life thanks largely to the oceans and a protective atmosphere we no doubt are the first stop on any interstellar visitors tour of our cosmic neighborhood but who would be second on their grand itinerary the more scientists learn the more they are drawn to a small and mysterious world that is also blessed with an abundance

 of water and even more significantly

 the building blocks of life that are literally bursting from the warm cracks in its surface that world is Enceladus one of Saturn's moons and the sooner we return with the knowledge we now have of its immeasurable possibilities the sooner we will know if this treasure trove of organic chemicals has produced life welcome to Science Reads in today's article we dive into the wondrous potential of this nearby world and why scientists say we must return to Enceladus Enceladus is a small world roughly as wide across as Arizona and small enough to fit into the length of the uk it has the most reflective surface in the solar system and is tidally locked to Saturn keeping the same face towards its home planet as it orbits 12 times faster than our moon this little wonder occupies the center of Saturn's e-ring a faint and wispy but enormous circle around the planet that differs from its more flat and sharply defined colleagues now on November 12, 1980 Voyager 1 flew within 125,000 miles or 202,000 kilometers of Enceladus but came away with low resolution images that did not dramatically add to our understanding of this world

 however Voyager 2 less than a year later passed by twice as close and captured much better images that showed a surprising youthful surface with wildly differing geological regions this was more than enough to pique the interest of Cassini mission planners years later and between 2008 and 2010 the spacecraft completed seven close flybys of Enceladus and in 2015 Cassini dove within 30 miles or 49 kilometers of the surface even spectacularly passing through an enormous plume of water vapor what it found altered our knowledge of possibilities for life in our backyard Enceladus discoveries have changed the

 direction of planetary science says Linda Spilker Cassini project scientist at nasa's jet propulsion laboratory multiple discoveries point to the possibility of a habitable ocean

 world world beyond earth's habitable zone planetary scientists now have Enceladus

 to consider as a possible habitat for life strong words we need to return to Enceladus Imagine astronomers reaction when the first detailed Cassini images of Enceladus south polar region were taken in 2005 to their amazement they saw a youthful and complex terrain far different from the pockmarked celestial bodies that mostly orbit earth and other planets with little geographical activity or weathering effects of rain or wind when objects slam into their surfaces the created craters remain as evidence for billions of years quite the opposite in southern Enceladus scientists instead saw a surface covered with ice boulders the size of houses and distinctive patterns carved in the region by tectonic movements unique to the southern half it was determined that the terrain is in constant motion buckling and stretching from Saturn's gravitational forces that pull the fissures shut when Enceladus is closest to its home world and allow the spectacular spray to release when further away and if that isn't enough they found a huge cloud of water vapor and ice particles extending into space shot there by several large and warm fissures and the crust of Enceladus these became affectionately known as tiger stripes and while they were given official names tiger stripes have endured for obvious reasons astronomers discovered a fascinating anomaly on Enceladus the south pole is much warmer than its sunnier equator this suggests a heat source local to the tiny world's southern sector oh and remember the massive e-ring of Saturn we now know that it is a product of this marvelous little ocean world teeming with water that leaves a massive trail of small ice particles to form this beautiful piece of our solar system doesn't it sound like we need to go back to Enceladus and humanity has barely scratched the surface of perhaps the biggest secret our neighbor is hiding in 2017 the Cassini mission ended its 20-year trek when the spacecraft intentionally plunged into Saturn's atmosphere before coming to rest on the planet it had spied on since 2004 scientists decided on this grand finale to avoid any possible contamination of the planet's icy moons Enceladus in particular with microbes possibly brought from earth wise choice Cassini is a gift that keeps on giving thanks to the incredible volume of data it sent back home on its mission that will be mine for decades scientists have found new kinds of organic compounds in the spectacular plumes erupting from the treasure chest that is Enceladus they were determined to be nitrogen and oxygen bearing compounds like those on earth that are part of producing amino acids one of the building blocks of life if the conditions are right these molecules coming from the deep ocean of Enceladus could be on the same reaction pathway as we see here on Earth said Nozair Khawaja of the free university of Berlin his team also discovered large insoluble complex organic molecules believed to float on the tiny world's vast ocean along with smaller organic building blocks we are yet again blown away by Enceladus previously we had only identified the simplest organic molecules containing a few carbon atoms that's what southwest research institute's Dr Christopher Glein said this moon is the only body besides earth known to simultaneously satisfy all of the basic requirements for life as we know it add to this detection of tiny grains of rocky silicate particles that could only be present if the rocky ocean floor was at least 194 degrees Fahrenheit or 90 degrees celsius and we have very strong evidence of hydrothermal vents on the floor of Enceladus' ocean a return trip to this jewel perhaps with a high resolution mass spectrometer on board as we fly through the plumes would enable much deeper study into these exciting and complex organic molecules if only if life exists elsewhere in our solar system there is a strong chance it is underground or even more likely under a thick layer of ice in a salty ocean with a powerful heat source such as that on Enceladus and Enceladus makes it easy by ejecting its ocean into space regularly in watery plumes it's as if this little world is throwing evidence at us saying see what i can do astronomers expect nasa's dragonfly mission to launch in June of 2027 and arrive at one of Saturn's moons by 2034 but the destination is titan not Enceladus and nasa's europa clipper mission is set to launch in October 2024 to explore another icy moon but this one is Jupiter's europa so what about Enceladus as there is only so much money to go around the scientific community is forced to wait to return a team of scientists and engineers at the Johns Hopkins university applied physics laboratory in Maryland is pitching a mission called Orbilander that would orbit Enceladus for about 200 days before turning on its side and converting to a lander thus Orbi-Lander a twice proposed mission name and cell of this life finder would make multiple passes through the plumes of Enceladus with two mass spectrometers to assess possibilities of life in its massive and warm salt waters it has yet to get the green light but we can still hope so what do you think about this tiny wondrous jewel circling Saturn should our scientists push a return visit to Enceladus up our priority list to find out if our bright little neighbor indeed harbors the only life outside of earth we know of tell us in the comments