Potential Building Blocks of Life Found in Plumes of Saturn‘s Moon Enceladus
PASADENA, CA – Scientists have detected a diverse array of organic molecules, including potential precursors to life, within plumes erupting from Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus. The findings, published today in Nature Astronomy, strengthen the case for a habitable ocean beneath the moon’s surface and offer tantalizing clues about the potential for life beyond Earth.
For years,researchers have analyzed data collected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft,which orbited saturn from 2004 to 2017. The E-ring, a diffuse ring of ice particles surrounding Saturn, is largely sourced from the geysers of Enceladus’ south polar region.analyzing the composition of ice grains within this ring proved challenging; ice bursts and clusters of water molecules often obscured signals from organic compounds.However, researchers discovered that when ice grains impacted the Cassini instrument at high speeds, water molecules didn’t cluster, allowing for clearer detection.
The analysis revealed that some organic molecules previously found in the E-ring also exist in freshly ejected grains from Enceladus, confirming thier origin in the moon’s subsurface ocean. Beyond these known compounds, the team identified new, previously undetected particles, including aliphatic compounds, (hetero) cyclical esters/alkenes, ether/ethyl, and perhaps nitrogen and oxygen-bearing compounds. On Earth, these types of molecules are crucial intermediates in chemical reactions that lead to more complex molecules essential for life.
“This is a significant step forward in our understanding of Enceladus’ potential habitability,” said Nozair Khawaja, the first author of the study from the University of Stuttgart and the Free University of Berlin.
The european Space Agency (ESA) is now considering a follow-up mission to Enceladus. This future probe would fly thru the geyser plumes and potentially even land near the moon’s South Pole to collect samples.
The Cassini-Huygens mission was a collaborative effort between NASA, ESA, and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Launched in 1997, the probe reached Saturn in 2004, completing over 20 flybys of Enceladus before intentionally plunging into Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017 to prevent potential contamination of the moon. Data from Cassini continues to be analyzed, yielding new discoveries years after the mission’s end.