Saturn’s moon Enceladus has “almost all” ingredients for life: study

Saturn

The search for alien life just got more interesting as a team of scientists recently discovered new evidence that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has oceans that contain all the basic requirements and materials needed to sustain life. According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers believe that Enceladus’ ocean is filled with dissolved phosphorus, an essential element for life.

“Enceladus is one of the prime targets of mankind’s search for life in our solar system,” said Dr Christopher Glenn of the Southwest Research Institute, co-authored the paper.

“What we learned is that the plume contains almost all the basic requirements of life as we know it. While the bio-essential element phosphorus has yet to be directly identified, our team found evidence of its availability in the oceans beneath the moon’s icy crust,” he added.

Running the model with data on the ocean-seafloor system on Enceladus, the research team predicted that seawater on Earth could contain as much or more phosphorus than Earth. “What this means for astrobiology is that we can be more confident than ever that Enceladus’ ocean is habitable,” Mr Glenn added.

The researchers noted that in the past Enceladus may not have had enough phosphorus to support life. However, with his new study, Mr. Glenn suggested that a new probe be sent to Enceladus to check for a habitable ocean.

“We have to go back to Enceladus to see if it has a habitable ocean,” he said, according to the study.

Meanwhile, According to Independent, Saturn is not the only planet that could harbor life. The presence of ammonia on Venus has led some researchers to suggest that alien life may exist in the planet’s sulfuric atmosphere. They postulate that while the planet itself is too hot for life, the clouds may harbor micro-organisms, producing ammonia to neutralize the acidity, similar to animals on Earth.

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