Shocking discovery! Saturn’s moon has everything for life

Data from NASA’s Cassini space mission has been reanalyzed and confirmed that Saturn’s moon Enceladus contains all six essential substances we know are essential for life. The results suggest that other similar moons in the outer Solar system may also be habitable.

New findings, recently released, confirm that abundant phosphorus, the last critical life component that scientists have yet to detect on the moon Saturn, is in the moon’s subsurface ocean. This discovery significantly raises the possibility of life beyond Earth in the Solar system as well.

Last ingredient for life also found

We know that all life on Earth depends on six basic elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus. Phosphorus was the only element researchers could not detect outside of Earth until now. Samples from Saturn’s sixth largest moon confirm the presence of all six elements. Samples from one of Saturn’s rings mainly contain water ice spewing from geyser-like volcanoes in the liquid ocean deep within the moon’s icy surface. NASA’s Cassini mission collected samples from the ring before it ended in 2017, but previous studies had found little or no phosphorus.

However, research using a new geochemical model shows that phosphorus is abundant on Enceladus, with concentrations at least 100 times higher than in Earth’s oceans. The findings suggest that beyond the point in the outer Solar system where the Sun’s rays no longer melt carbon dioxide and freeze to ice, other worlds may be as habitable as Enceladus. These include Pluto and Neptune’s moon Triton.

Planetary scientist Frank Postberg from Freie Universität Berlin said in a statement that such environments can support life even though they are too far from the Sun to receive enough light. The heat necessary for life can come from hydrothermal vents, which are abundant in Earth’s deepest oceans.

Meanwhile, NASA detected a large eruption of water from Enceladus late last month using the James Webb Telescope. The eruption was spreading about 20 times the diameter of the Moon. Further observations with the telescope will likely reveal more information about Enceladus.