Scientists just found the most basic ingredients for life bursting from an ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus. Despite these determinations, it is still too soon to say if alien life exists on Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth-largest of its 62 moons. I’m a curious and keen physicist that is currently studying for an MRes in Photonics at Imperial College London where I've completed research at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California . Hunter Waite from the Southwest Research Institute, says, ‘If we find life on Enceladus, it is not likely to be very Earth-like, unless the origin of these life forms is from a common source outside the solar system, which is highly unlikely.’, I’m a curious and keen physicist that is currently studying for an MRes in Photonics at Imperial College London where I've completed research at SLAC National Accelerator…. It was found that the microbes were able to thrive in these extreme conditions. Your browser or your browser's settings are not supported. A European collaboration of scientists have shown that certain lifeforms can survive under Enceladus-like conditions. To help test this theory, Simon Rittmann at the University of Vienna in Austria and his team exposed these microbes to conditions which mimicked those of Enceladus’ atmosphere. Rittmann says, ‘The conditions we mimicked in the lab are as close as possible to those inferred from Cassini on Enceladus.’, The microbes were subjected to the gases found in Enceladus’ atmosphere in the quantities that matched Cassini’s findings. Enceladus is one of Saturn’s moons and is one of the prime candidates to host life. A new analysis of NASA data reveals the presence of organic compounds in the plumes of liquid water that shoot into space from the ocean below Enceladus's icy crust. 3 OCTOBER 2019. Chris McKay from NASA’s Ames Research Center believes, ‘This [team] has taken the first step to showing experimentally that methanogens can indeed live in the conditions expected on Enceladus.’. This means that there could be organisms living on Enceladus right now. The simulations suggested that enough hydrogen was made by this process to allow the microbes to survive. Enceladus is special since it has an ocean of liquid salty water underneath its crust which is made of solid ice. The temperature ranged from 0 to 90 degrees Celsius and the pressures were up to 50 Earth atmospheres. NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration, A Perspective on Life on Enceladus: A World of Possibilities, Follow this link to skip to the main content. To get the best experience possible, please download a compatible browser. You may opt-out by. These gases included hydrogen and carbon dioxide which the microbes use to produce the energy they need. I’ve got a BSc in Physics from Imperial College London. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. So maybe it was possible that on Enceladus, life started in a “warm little pond” below the icy surface occurring over the last few tens of millions of years. For life to persist once it has been established requires an environment of liquid water, the essential elements and nutrients, and an … Often atmospheric plumes of water are seen which shoot out icy particles at about 800 miles per hour. Also, the temperatures are estimated to be a bit higher than 0 degrees Celsius and the pressure is around 50 atmospheres in this area. On top of that, the pressures and temperatures found in Enceladus’ oceans were also replicated. But one thing is certain, this series of discoveries can indicate a potentially habitable environment for living things in the future. xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'">. If you know your browser is up to date, you should check to ensure that Enceladus is about 500 kilometers in diameter, which would fit nicely in the state of Arizona, in the U.S. Its atmosphere consists of gases such as hydrogen and carbon dioxide and tiny amounts of methane which was detected by Cassini. These microbes could explain why there is methane in the atmosphere of Enceladus. Olivine materials are found in the solid core of the moon. javascript is enabled. © 2020 Forbes Media LLC. These compounds, which carry nitrogen and oxygen, play a key role in producing amino acids - … Additionally, it is thought that the best environment for the microbes to thrive is on the seafloor where they have contact with the rock and minerals. Although it has been proven that these microbes can survive in Enceladus-like conditions, it does not prove that these microbes exist in the seafloor of Enceladus. This means that there could be organisms living on Enceladus right now. EY & Citi On The Importance Of Resilience And Innovation, Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change, Michigan Economic Development Corporation BrandVoice, European collaboration of scientists have shown that certain lifeforms can survive under Enceladus-like conditions. I let the world hear my voice on Science Mixtape on Soho Radio where we interview scientists about their field of expertise and learn more about their musical tastes. Life Investigation For Enceladus (LIFE) was a proposed astrobiology mission concept that would capture icy particles from Saturn's moon Enceladus and return them to Earth, where they could be studied in detail for signs of life such as biomolecules. A European collaboration of scientists have shown that certain lifeforms can survive under Enceladus-like conditions . It is not even clear whether these new complex molecules are biological in nature. It is known that microbes known as methanogenic archaeon produce methane as a waste product. A photograph of Enceladus, taken by the Cassini spacecraft in 2005. Computer simulations were run to calculate the amount of hydrogen that would be produced by the breakdown of olivine minerals. I’m also a keen science communicator and blogger who’s caught the physics bug and would like others to catch it too! If there’s any life on Enceladus, it’s probably concentrated around its hydrothermal vents, which are also key to sustaining marine ecosystems on Earth. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. (Photo by: Universal History... [+] Archive/UIG via Getty Images). I was named the UK Young Face of Fusion 2016 for EUROFusion, a Very Early Career Physics Communicator finalist from the Institute of Physics and am an author of numerous articles for Catalyst Magazine and others. 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