CHICAGO – The last key ingredient for life has been found on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus.
Phosphorus is a vital building block of life, used to build DNA and RNA. Now, analysis of data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has revealed that Enceladus’ subsurface ocean contains important nutrients. Not only that, the concentration may be thousands of times greater than in the Earth’s oceans, planetary scientist Yasuhito Sekine reported December 14 at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting.
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The essential element may also be abundant on other icy worlds, holding promise for the search for alien life, said Sekine, of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
“We know that Enceladus has many of the elements that are essential for life as we know it – carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur,” said Morgan Cable, an astrobiologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who is currently not involved in the research. “Now [phosphorus] has been confirmed … Enceladus now seems to meet all the criteria for a habitable ocean.”
Many researchers consider Enceladus to be the most likely place for extraterrestrial life. It’s a world encased in ice, with an ocean of salt water hidden underneath (SN: 11/6/17). What’s more, in 2005 the Cassini spacecraft observed geysers blasting steam and ice grains out of the icy shell of Enceladus (SN: 8/23/05). And in that space-faring spray, scientists have detected organic molecules.
But until now, researchers are not sure whether phosphorus is also present in Enceladus. On the Earth’s surface, the element is relatively rare. Much phosphorus is locked up in minerals, and its availability often controls the rate at which life can evolve.
So Sekine and your colleagues analyzed chemical data, collected by the now-defunct Cassini, particles in Saturn’s E ring, halo material ejected from the Enceladus jet that wraps around Saturn.
Some of the ice grains in ring E are enriched in a phosphorus compound called sodium phosphate, the researchers found. They estimate that one kilogram of water from the Enceladus ocean contains about 1 to 20 millimoles of phosphate, a concentration thousands of times greater than in Earth’s big blue ocean.
On the floor of Enceladus’ subsurface ocean, phosphates may arise from a reaction between seawater and a phosphate-containing mineral called apatite, Sekine said, before being ejected through geysers into space. Apatite is often found in carbonaceous chondrites, the building blocks of primitive planets (SN: 7/14/17).
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But that’s not all. Many other icy ocean worlds also contain apatite, Sekine said. Similarly, they can also bring high levels of phosphate in their oceans. This may interest you : ‘The Empress’ German Netflix series: everything we know so far. That wealth could be a boon for potential alien organisms.
While the findings are promising, they pose a glaring puzzle, Sekine said. “If life exists [on] Enceladus, why [isn’t] the abundance of chemical energy and nutrients constant?” After all, here on Earth, whatever phosphorus is available is quickly destroyed by life.
There is a possibility that the moon is simply barren of life, said Sekine. But there is a more hopeful explanation as well. Life on cold Enceladus, he said, could simply consume nutrients at a slow rate.
With the Cassini data, scientists discovered an icy ocean beneath the moon’s surface and a strange tiger-stripe sign at the moon’s south pole unlike any other in the solar system. Icy material from the oceans of Enceladus burst into space through these streaks, or cracks, on the moon’s surface.
What was the amazing discovery on Enceladus in 2005?
Cassini first studied Enceladus in February 2005 when the spacecraft passed within 725 miles (1,167 kilometers) of the moon. To see also : Big Video: 50 Best TV Shows To Watch. The spacecraft’s magnetometer (MAG) detected the curvature of Saturn’s magnetic field locally in the space above Enceladus, almost like the atmosphere.
What did Voyager 2 discover about Enceladus? Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed by it in the early 1980s, very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface. The Voyagers showed that Enceladus is only 500 kilometers in diameter and reflects almost 100% of the sunlight that hits it.
How did we discover Enceladus?
Little was known about Enceladus until the flyby of the US spacecraft Voyager 2 in 1981. Approaching as close as 87,000 km (54,000 miles), the spacecraft returned images revealing that Enceladus is geologically complex, its surface having undergone five distinct evolutionary periods.
What was the amazing discovery on Enceladus in 2005 that was very intriguing considering the moon’s small size?
Discovered by the Cassini spacecraft that explored Saturn in late 2005, the icy jet erupting from Enceladus came as a surprise to most scientists. Blasting through fissures in the south polar region, the jet contains sea water from the global ocean locked under the moon’s icy shell.
What was the amazing discovery on Enceladus in 2005 that was very intriguing considering the moon’s small size?
Discovered by the Cassini spacecraft that explored Saturn in late 2005, the icy jet erupting from Enceladus came as a surprise to most scientists. Blasting through fissures in the south polar region, the jet contains sea water from the global ocean locked under the moon’s icy shell.
What did Cassini discover on Enceladus in 2005 that makes it the most interesting location in our solar system? Cassini detected a cloud of water vapor and ice coming from the south pole of Enceladus – a discovery that surprised scientists. The spacecraft also revealed that the moon’s surface is young, complex and has fewer craters than previously thought.
What makes Enceladus so special?
From this sample, scientists have determined that Enceladus has most of the chemicals necessary for life, and possibly has hydrothermal vents spewing out hot, mineral-rich water into the ocean. About the size of Arizona, Enceladus also has the whitest, most reflective surface in the solar system.
Is Enceladus bigger than Titan?
At 3,200 miles (5150 kilometers) across, Titan is 10 times larger than Enceladus, which is only 313 miles (504 kilometers) in diameter. Titan is seen as a disk because light from the distant Sun is refracted through the moon’s dense atmosphere.
What is special about Titan and Enceladus? In Enceladus, spacecraft can fly through the plume and directly taste the contents of the ocean. On Titan, complex organic molecules are brought to the outermost fringes of the atmosphere where spacecraft can sample atmospheric chemistry.
What planet is the moon Titan bigger than?
Titan is larger than the planet Mercury and is the second largest moon in our solar system. Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is only slightly larger (about 2 percent). Titan’s atmosphere is mostly made of nitrogen, like Earth, but with a surface pressure 50 percent higher than Earth’s.
What is bigger than a Titan?
solar system Only Jupiter’s satellite Ganymede has a larger diameter.
What is the biggest Titan on Earth?
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Surface pressure | 146.7 kPa (1.45 atm) |
