The Cassini spacecraft took this image while looking across the south pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus on Nov. 30, 2010. Jets of water from the moon's underground ocean are visible bursting through cracks in the ice. (Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)
Joel Kontinen
An ocean
flowing beneath the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus is spewing ice that
holds the building blocks of life.
Scientists
have discovered that the molecular building blocks needed for life are
"readily available" on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus.
At only 314
miles (505 kilometers) wide, Enceladus — and thanks to its liquid water, hydrothermal
energy source and chemical tool kit, it has the potential to host
extraterrestrial life.
Twenty
years ago, NASA's Cassini spacecraft discovered evidence that a
vast salty ocean hidden beneath Enceladus' surface was spitting out
minuscule "ice grains" through cracks near the moon's south
pole. Subsequent studies have spotted five of the six essential elements for
life — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus (only missing sulfur)
— within these grains.
Twenty years ago, NASA's Cassini
spacecraft discovered evidence that a vast salty ocean hidden
beneath Enceladus' surface was spitting out minuscule "ice grains" through cracks
near the moon's south pole. Subsequent studies have spotted five of the six essential elements for
life — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus (only missing sulfur)
— within these grains.
However,
the majority of these past studies looked at the relatively old ice grains that
settled in Saturn's E ring — a diffuse ring outside the planet's
bright main rings — after being ejected decades or centuries prior. This meant
scientists couldn't be sure that the compounds truly came from Enceladus rather
than from space weathering in the ring.
Sophie Berdugo 2025 Scientists find best evidence yet that icy moon Enceladus is habitable | Live Science October 2
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