{"id":3825,"date":"2015-04-05T10:24:26","date_gmt":"2015-04-05T10:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=3825"},"modified":"2015-04-05T10:27:55","modified_gmt":"2015-04-05T10:27:55","slug":"potential-life-on-a-saturn-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/potential-life-on-a-saturn-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential Life on a Saturn Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Enceladus,<\/a>
Enceladus, a Saturn moon that may boast microscopic life. (Source: NASA\/JPL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hydrothermal vents on a Saturn moon are so similar to life-ridden hydrothermal vents on Earth, scientists think they may find life up there, says a report in Nature<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In particular, hydrothermal vents in a sub-surface ocean on the Saturn moon Enceladus spew chemicals into Saturn\u2019s rings that are eerily like chemicals spewing from the mid-Atlantic Ocean hydrothermal \u201cLost City\u201d vents\u2014which in turn are like chemicals, it is thought, from which life on earth originally sprang.<\/span><\/p>\n

The discovered chemicals are \u201cvery good for life,\u201d NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay told\u00a0Bioscience<\/em>\u00a0Technology<\/em>. A key product of the water-on-rock reactions seen on Enceladus \u201cis hydrogen, and this is candy for microorganisms. All together, the data may make a strong case that the ocean down there is habitable, rich in organics and nutrients, and rich in energy in the form life can use.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In an earlier 2014\u00a0study<\/span><\/a>, McKay, uninvolved with the recent\u00a0Nature<\/em>\u00a0report, called Enceladus \u201cthe best astrobiology target in the solar system.\u201d Astrobiology is the study of earth life, in extreme environments, that may mirror extraterrestrial life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new work<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

University of Colorado astrophysicist Sean Hsu, a leader of the team behind the new report, gauged the pH, salinity, and temperature of the ocean on Enceladus by analyzing a Saturn ring.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2005 scientists discovered 125-mile-high icy geysers on Enceladus that were clearly the source of many particles in Saturn\u2019s outer ring. With the mass spectrometer of the Cassini orbiter, they discovered the particles were made largely of silica apparently from evaporated geyser-flung saltwater\u2014thus, from Enceladus\u2019 potentially warm ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n

The size and makeup of the silicate particles gave their origin away. For the uniformly small\u00a0size of the clumps revealed the water was slightly less salinic than that of earth\u2019s oceans today,\u00a0and\u00a0possessed a pH slightly greater than that of earth\u2019s oceans before the industrial revolution. It also indicated the presence of hydrothermal vents at least 200 degrees F. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The vent-warmed waters were made of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, methane, and other chemicals necessary for earth life. It all indicated Enceladus may resemble the life-rich Lost City hydrothermal area.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the heat in the vents is powered by gravitational friction generated by Saturn and its other moons\u2014not a hot core, like ours\u2014scientists don\u2019t know how long the hydrothermal activity has gone on. But they are optimistic NASA will launch a new mission to answer that question, and many others\u2014including whether there is, indeed, life up there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hsu told\u00a0Bioscience<\/em>\u00a0Technology<\/em>\u00a0that \u201cthe most surprising\u201d finding his team made was that \u201cthe interior of Enceladus is still warm at present time. For an object as small as Enceladus, the residual heat left from the formation is expected to have been dissipated a long time ago, meaning that Enceladus should be frozen. Tidal heating should be the major cause, but there is still quite a lot we do not know, including how long has Enceladus been active and how stable it has been.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lost City comparison is apt, he said. \u201cThe formation of individual nano-silica particles indicate an alkaline environment. So, regarding the fluid pH and reaction temperature, we think the Lost City hydrothermal field is the best analog on Earth. The rock composition may play the dominant role here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There is more coming, both in the near-future and beyond, Hsu said. \u201cRegarding observation,\u00a0there are three more targeted Enceladus encounters coming up at the end of this year. Two of them focus on \u2018remote sensing\u2019 measurements such as infrared measurements to constrain the heat output. But one is diving deeper into the plume than ever before. The composition of ice grains and vapor will be measured with the highest quality possible for Cassini\u2019s instruments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So in the near future, Hsu told\u00a0Bioscience<\/em>\u00a0Technology<\/em>, \u201cthere is a chance that we might get a better picture about heat sources and hydrothermal activities. But\u00a0the real question regarding how good the chances are for life on Enceladus will likely be answered only by future missions with a dedicated, state-of-the-art payload.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a payload may include \u201ca modern ice-grain analyzer that we are already developing in our labs\u2026.On the other hand, I think it is important to carry out more hydrothermal experiments to have a systematic understanding. This will not only benefit our knowledge about the subsurface oceans, but also be useful for future mission design and instrument development\u2026Currently there is no mission planned to revisit the Saturnian system. But there are several mission concepts that have been proposed to ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA.”<\/span><\/p>\n

MaKay told\u00a0Bioscience<\/em>\u00a0Technology<\/em>\u00a0the new results “were not a surprise\u2014or one could say they were an incremental surprise. The Cassini mission and the CAPS instrument in particular have been gradually revealing the nature of the subsurface ocean on Enceladus. The earlier indication of salt, and other results published over the years, have pointed toward a hot water rock reaction. So this was just confirmation of the result.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lost City hydrothermal field, he agreed, \u201cis a very good Earth analog. I find it a compelling story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McKay also agreed that \u201cto confirm that there is life in the plume would require another mission. Cassini can’t do it. It may require a sample return.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: Bioscience<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hydrothermal vents on a Saturn moon are so similar to life-ridden hydrothermal vents on Earth, scientists think they may find life up there, says a report in Nature In particular, hydrothermal vents in a sub-surface ocean on the Saturn moon Enceladus spew chemicals into Saturn\u2019s rings that are eerily like chemicals spewing from the mid-Atlantic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",600,509,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1-300x254.jpg",300,254,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",600,509,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",600,509,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",600,509,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",600,509,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",600,509,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",600,509,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",600,509,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",600,509,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",578,490,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",424,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",77,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",600,509,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",96,81,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bt1503_cynthia_saturnmoon-1.jpg",150,127,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}