Saturn’s Enceladus has all the necessary ingredients to create life
Traces of phosphorus were discovered
NASA scientists have detected phosphorus on Enceladus, Saturn’s moon, thanks to the Cassini spacecraft. This means that Enceladus has all the chemical ingredients needed to create life as we know it on Earth.
This is the final verdict that says “yes, Enceladus has all the ingredients that a typical Earth life form would need to live and that the ocean there is habitable for life as we know it”. – Morgan Cable, astrobiology chemist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Cassini completed its mission in 2017 by plunging into Saturn’s atmosphere, but before that, it provided valuable data by passing close by Enceladus. Beneath the icy surface of Enceladus lies a warm ocean with a depth of 50 kilometers, which extends across the entire moon. At its south pole are jets that shoot icy particles into space, which Cassini analyzed so scientists can study the ocean’s chemical composition remotely, without having to reach the satellite’s surface.
Previous research had proven that Enceladus had the remaining ingredients for life, such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur. Everything, except phosphorus. The scientists’ analyzes eventually also identified phosphorus-oxygen bonds, completing the list of necessary materials for the creation of life.
Of course, this does not mean that Enceladus necessarily has life.
The next step is to see if the satellite actually harbors life, and it will take a future mission to answer that question. But that makes Enceladus an even more attractive destination for the search for life in the universe.
