by By Will Dunham
Washington (Reuters) -A new view of data collected by NASA’s Cassini -Space Varitage has discovered more evidence that the Moon Enceladus of Saturn can possibly support life, with extra complex organic molecules identified from the geyser -like worldwide okanal iced icing grains.
Researchers investigated again in detailed data when Cassini carried out the nearest flyby of Enceladus in 2008, even when it flew directly through the plumes of ice grains and gases that flew out of the ice surface of the ice near the South Pole. In addition, they could get a clearer picture of the underground chemistry of the moon.
In addition to attaching the presence of certain organic molecules, including forerunners for amino acids – the building blocks of proteins, the large and complex molecules that are essential for life – previously detected in the plums, they found new classes of organic molecules that had not been spotted before.
“We have found different categories organic – which mainly means carbon -containing molecules that include a series of structures and chemical properties,” said Nozair Khawaja, a planetary scientist to Freie Universität Berlin and main author of the study that was published this week in the magazine Nature Astronomy.
These are the type of molecules that can be involved in the right conditions in the processes that lead to the formation of more complex organic compounds that are essential components for life.
“Such connections are assumed that they are intermediaries in the synthesis of more complex molecules, which may be biologically relevant. However, it is important to note that these molecules can also be formed Abiotic without any interaction with life on earth,” Khawaja said.
Enceladus is considered one of the most intriguing places in our solar system to look for possible life beyond the earth. Named after a giant in ancient Greek mythology, it is one of the inner mans of the ringed gas giant Saturn, the second largest planet of our solar system. It has a diameter of 313 miles (504 km) and jobs Saturn at a distance of approximately 148,000 miles (238,000 km).
Scientists believe that Enceladus has the chemical ingredients needed for life and have released hydrothermic ventilation openings that are released, mineral -rich water in its ocean, the same type of environment that has produced the first living organisms of the earth. The ocean is located under an ice cap of approximately 12-19 miles (20-30 km) thick.
“First of all, we did not find any life on Enceladus and we have not found any biosa signatures,” said Khawaja, referring to something that is indicative of life, past or present.
“Even if such things exist there, I doubt that we would find it in the data of the instruments of Cassini, which were technology for decades. We have convincing evidence that all three of the keystones of the inhabitability – liquid water, an energy source and essential elements and organic substances – exist on Enceladus,” Khawaja said.
The researchers performed an extensive chemical analysis of the ice grains that were sampled directly from the plume during Cassinis Flyby at a speed of approximately 40,250 miles (64,800 km) per hour. These granules are small pieces of frozen water from the underground ocean that had been cast only a few minutes earlier, so they were not changed over time due to intense spacecrision such as the iced grains of Enceladus that form a ring around Saturn that follows the orbital path of the moon.
The chemical properties of the plume grains thus reflected complex chemical reactions that took place in the ocean.
The European Space Agency is planning a future mission to return to Enceladus.
“Enceladus is and must be ranked as the most important target to explore habitability and seek whether there is life or not,” said Khawaja.
(Reporting by Will Dunham, editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
