Jupiter’s Icy Moon Enceladus May Host Life; Here’s How NASA Would Prove It

One of the most likely sites in the solar system to have life is the ice-covered, Saturn's ocean-containing moon Europa, which has recently been the subject of one of NASA's Juno spacecraft's most comprehensive images.

Space specialists made this information public after they examined the moon's highest-resolution image taken by the Juno probe.

According to the Enceladus study published in the PNAS magazine, the moon's water appears to contain dissolved phosphorous, an essential component for life. It is a component of cell membranes, the production of RNA and DNA, and the bones and teeth in our body.

The scientists were able to develop a model of the ocean of Enceladus and how minerals would dissolve in it by analyzing data from the Cassini spacecraft.

Saturn Moon Hints Europa as Habitable

Phosphorus, a component of life as we know it, maybe present on Enceladus, according to recent research that used computer modeling and Cassini data.

Though the researchers did not directly discover the element, their study indicates that the ocean on Enceladus may have around the same amount of phosphorus as the saltwater on Earth.

Christopher Glein, a senior scientist at the Southwest Research Institute and a co-author of the new report, told Mashable that Enceladus' ocean should contain a significant amount of one of the essential ingredients required for life on Earth.

With a diameter that is less than one-quarter that of Earth, Enceladus is significantly smaller than our moon. There is a vast ocean underneath its surface, which is shielded by water ice. According to NASA, Enceladus discharges jets of ice water particles into space at a speed of 800 miles per hour in what appear to be continuous geysers.

Scientists have previously expressed doubt that Enceladus could contain much phosphorus. After all, Enceladus is a moon of ice and water. In contrast, phosphorous on Earth is formed by the weathering of rocks on land.

(Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute via Getty Images)
IN SPACE - AUGUST 18: In this handout image provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), looking toward the sunlit side of the rings, Saturn's rings and the icy moon Enceladus is seen in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 18, 2015. Saturn's night side (top C) is illuminated by sunlight reflected off the rings. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 87,000 miles from Enceladus. Between April and September 2017, Cassini will plunge repeatedly through the gap that separates the planet from the rings. The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency), and the Italian Space Agency.

ALSO READ: Saturn's Moon Enceladus' Phosphorus Discovery Offers Evidence of Potential Extraterrestrial Life

While earlier studies suggested that phosphorous was scarce on Enceladus, the current study relied on more thorough computer simulations to get its conclusions.

According to Space.com, the scientists created simulations to show how phosphorus-rich materials from Enceladus' core may dissolve into the oceans. According to Mashable, Cassini demonstrated that the core is rocky, and meteorites and other space rocks give an idea of its potential composition. However, scientists have not yet taken any material from the core.

According to the paper, a core with that projected composition would mix with the moon's ocean water to make Enceladus relatively rich in phosphorus.

"The quest for extraterrestrial habitability in the solar system has shifted focus, as we now look for the building blocks for life, including organic molecules, ammonia, sulfur-bearing compounds as well as the chemical energy needed to support life," Glein said in a statement.

The possibility of phosphorus being rare in the water of Enceladus, which would reduce the life chances, makes for a fascinating instance, he continued.

Glein contends that further investigation is necessary to determine whether a livable ocean is genuinely populated, given that the latest data indicate that phosphorus may be very abundant.

How NASA Would Prove Claims

Digital Trends wrote that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's NASA program is one possible mechanism to make this happen.

Researching ocean planets like Enceladus would benefit greatly from the use of a set of scientific tools developed by the Ocean Worlds Life Surveyor (OWLS) project specifically for evaluating liquid samples.

One approach would be to fly a spacecraft through the water plumes that erupt from the moon's surface in order to get that water without having to drill through the thick frozen crust.