The search for life on outer space has been an ongoing venture for humans since the early days of space exploration. The existence of life outside our world has been the subject of many interpretations in pop culture, film, art, and also many educational efforts and research.
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For most scientists, this does not reasonably mean a search for anything intelligent but rather something more microbial in a sense. This quest has led to many discoveries that have given us further improvements in our knowledge about our own Solar System alone, such as the fact that water actually exist in abundance in our Solar System.
In 1997, NASA launched an unmanned spacecraft called Cassini-Huygens with a mission to explore the planet Saturn, a first in efforts to explore our outer Solar System.
The lander Huygens landed on Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan, in December of 2004, while the orbiter Cassini continued to orbit around Saturn’s with plans to study Saturn’s systems and many satellites.
Cassini was programmed to perform a few objectives and specific duties mostly involving a study of Saturn’s physical attributes and behavior. Its findings have been more than useful in providing new information about that part of our solar system.
Saturn is a fascinating planetary body with a comprehensive list of 52 moons with determined orbits. Cassini has picked up much information about Saturn and its moons throughout the years. Perhaps its recent discovery about one of Saturn’s moons previously deemed without promise is its best yet.
Enceladus is the 6th largest moon of Saturn, only about the tenth in size compared to Titan. It is known for its icy, reflective surface and chilling atmosphere. Enceladus’ temperature range is about -330 degrees fanrenheit ( -201° celsuis ) and the surface is known to feature a number of attributes such as heavy craters and deformed terrains.
Previous studies on Enceladus have always concluded that the moon was just a solid mass of ice. However in 2014, Cassini discovered a large body of subsurface water in Enceladus’ South Pole region. In addition to the discovery of plumes rising out of the same region about a decade ago, new interest in Enceladus and its habitability have resurfaced.
One of the most important of Cassini’s discoveries happened as recently as this year, when its probes picked up an unexpected gas in one of Enceladus’ plumes. Cassini picked up large amounts of hydrogen in such gas eruptions, which has led scientists to take a second look into what may be causing such a production and what it means for the possibility of life in the moon.
While Cassini found both water and hydrogen molecules out of the plumes, the existence of hydrogen suggests some type of hydrothermal reaction happening underneath the surface of the ocean water, deep down on the seafloor. This suggestion is in comparison to the way hydrothermal activity happens on the Earth’s ocean floor, which produces fluids that are rich in minerals that allow for life to thrive.
Scientists believe that when hot water molecules pass through rocks, rock minerals may be holding on to the oxygen atoms and releasing the hydrogen. This may very well be they type of hydrothermal activity that is going on in Enceladus, producing the large amounts of hydrogen in its plumes.
This is a promising idea for Enceladus’ habitability. The role of hydrogen in the development and support of life is crucial. The existence of hydrogen in Enceladus is a potential and possibility of a food source for any microbial systems. The imbalance of other gases that were found in the plumes also supports the same idea. Hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide can all become an energy source. The amount of hydrogen in Enceladus’ atmosphere is definitely enough to be a food source, yet the question still remains: is there life on Enceladus.
Research at the moment is inconclusive. The existence of a food source is not indicative of the existence of a microbial system to feed on it or of any life in general.
While Cassini is to be out of commission soon, further studies need to proceed in order to fully conclude whether life can exist in the harsh cold conditions of Enceladus. While this may be promising as many creatures thrive on Earth on harsh conditions, there is still much to learn about Enceladus and its habitability for now and for the future.
Thanks, great article.