Enceladus (Photo : www.dailygalaxy.com)
Scientists have determined that Enceladus, Saturn's tiny moon, has ocean underneath its ice surface. Surprisingly, this contains organic chemicals that have been known to serve as life's building blocks, the European Space Agency published.
A new evidence has also presented that the third most vital component of life, which is energy, is found on Enceladus. Although the actual distance of the moon from the sun is too far for photosynthesis to take place, another study was able to determine that hydrothermal activity is happening on the ocean floor of Saturn's tiny moon, the Nature explained.
On Earth, life forms have evolved to feed off the released chemical energy in sea-floor environments, similar to what has been discovered in Enceladus.
The Enceladus' surface is covered with ice; however, when the Cassini spacecraft exited towards the moon in 2005, it was able to detect water vapor plumes shooting out via holes and cracks in its surface. Since then, the same spacecraft has identified about 100 geysers of this kind, with minute amounts of salt, methane, nitrogen, and a few other substances.
Hsiang-Wen Hsu of the Unviersity of Colorado interpreted the data that the Cassini travel mission has collected. According to him, particles that shoot out of the geysers are from Enceladus' interior. Further, the dust particles that were collected indicates that it were formed through water and hot rock interactions, simply hydrothermal activity.
Hsu explained that with the findings, Enceladus has a rocky core that is covered in crevices, a place where water could enter and get heated up.
