Saturn's Icy Moon Enceladus Could Harbor Life After Scientists Detected Methane in the Jets of Water Bursting Through the Ice

A team of researchers led by the University of Arizona detected methane in the plumes of water vapor bursting through the icy shell of the vast ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

According to MailOnline, scientists devised a hypothetical space mission to confirm or refute their claims of the possible presence of extraterrestrial life on the icy moon. The mission would include a space probe that will orbit around Enceladus to survey its large saltwater ocean behind.

Cassini Probe Detected Methane on Enceladus

When NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft first observed Enceladus in 1980, it seemed to be a little, uninteresting "snowball" in the sky. But between 2005 to 2017, NASA's Cassini probe orbited Saturn's intricate rings and moons to study them in unprecedented detail.

Scientists were astounded by Cassini's discovery that Enceladus' thick coating of ice conceals a large, warm saltwater ocean outgassing methane, a gas that generally derives from microscopic life on Earth. As per the press release, methane along with other organic molecules are the foundations of life on Earth and has been detected in the giant water plumes in Enceladus.

The spectacular plumes of water jet from the cracks and crevices of the icy surface of Enceladus into space due to the immense gravitational force between the moon and Saturn. In 2021, scientists calculated that life could have emerged on the moon, which explains why Enceladus is releasing methane.

But to confirm this, scientists have to go back to Saturn. In their paper, titled "Putative Methanogenic Biosphere in Enceladus's Deep Ocean: Biomass, Productivity, and Implications for Detection" published in The Planetary Science Journal, scientists report that sending advanced orbiting spacecraft would gather information from the plumes to determine whether life exists on Enceladus or not.

Clearly, sending a robot that will crawl through the ice cracks and dive deep down on the seafloor of Ennceladus' ocean would not be easy. The simulated data points to sending a more realistic mission to conduct it, such as a space probe.

Finding Cells in Enceladus is Slim

The excess methane observed by Cassini in the plumes conjures up ideas of remarkable ecosystems seen in the dark depths of the Earth's oceans: hydrothermal vents.

Hot magma beneath the seafloor warms the ocean water in permeable bedrock, forming "white smokers," vents spouting blazing hot, mineral-saturated saltwater near the boundaries of two neighboring tectonic plates. Without sunlight, big and small animals rely on energy stored in chemical substances emitted by white smokers to survive.

But scientists are not expecting to see cells as the chances of that are slim, Mashable reported. The paper includes recommendations for minimum material that must be collected to confidently search for microbial life and organic molecules. To find cells would mean they would have to survive the outgassing process that carried them through the plumes from deep ocean.

Instead, they suggest that organic molecules, like amino acids, would serve as indirect evidence for or against an environment that may harbor life. If measurements came back at a certain threshold, then it would make a strong case of microbial life on Enceladus.

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