Researchers from the University of Arizona have found that an orbiting space probe could solve the mystery surrounding the possibility of extraterrestrial microbial life on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s 83 moons. The researchers outlined the plan in a published paper. Journal of Planetary Scienceexplains how a hypothetical space mission can provide compelling answers.

At first, when NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft discovered Enceladus in 1980, it looked like a small, nondescript “snowball” in the sky. However, between 2005 and 2017, the Saturn system was explored in unprecedented detail by NASA’s Cassini probe. Scientists were stunned when Cassini discovered that Enceladus’ icy exterior hides a warm marine ocean emitting methane gas. On Earth, methane is often produced by microbes, making Enceladus a fascinating subject for further research.

Methane, along with other organic molecules that form the basis of life, was discovered while Cassini was flying through the giant water clouds gushing from the surface of Enceladus. As the tiny moon orbits the ringed gas giant, it is compressed and pulled by Saturn’s massive gravitational field, heating it through friction. As a result, impressive streams of water are launched into space from cracks and fissures in Enceladus’ icy surface.

Last year, a team of scientists from the University of Arizona and the Paris University of Science and Letters in Paris calculated that if life had arisen on Enceladus, its presence might explain why the moon was emitting methane.

“We have to look back at Enceladus to find out if that’s the case,” said Regis Ferrier, senior author of the new paper and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.

Ferrier and colleagues report in their recent paper that while the hypothetical total mass of living microbes in the Enceladus ocean is small, a visit by an orbiting spacecraft is sufficient to ensure whether the Enceladus ocean is full of terrestrial microbes. . under its shell.

“Obviously, sending a robot that crawls through ice cracks and dives deep into the seafloor isn’t going to be easy,” Ferrier said, explaining that more realistic missions are being developed that will use updated instruments to sample plumes, as Cassini does. . , or even landing on the surface of the moon.

“Our team has shown that by modeling data that a more trained and sophisticated spacecraft in orbit can only collect from plumes, this approach will be sufficient to confidently determine whether there is life in the ocean of Enceladus without the need for a real survey of the depth of the moon,” he said. “It’s an exciting prospect.”

Located about 800 million miles from Earth, Enceladus orbits Saturn every 33 hours. Although the Moon is not as wide as the state of Arizona, it stands out visually with its surface; Like a frozen body of water shimmering in the sun, the moon reflects light in a way that no other object in the solar system can. Along the moon’s south pole, at least 100 giant water clouds gush from cracks in the icy terrain, resembling lava from a raging volcano.

Scientists believe that the water vapor and ice particles ejected by these geyser-like structures are one of Saturn’s signature rings. This ejected mix, which collects gases and other particles from the depths of Enceladus’ ocean, was sampled by the Cassini spacecraft. Source