Enceladus may naturally separate and concentrate chemicals from its hidden ocean as droplets slowly freeze and shatter on their way into space. The process could explain Cassini’s puzzling ice-grain c...

Freezing drops of water accelerating through space could hold the truth about life beyond Earth.

Enceladus may naturally separate and concentrate chemicals from its hidden ocean as droplets slowly freeze and shatter on their way into space. The process could explain Cassini’s puzzling ice-grain chemistry while giving future spacecraft a powerful advantage in searching for organic compounds and clues to life.

When it comes to where it sends its spacecraft, is NASA looking for life in all the wrong places?

Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus features chemical signatures consistent with an alkaline soda ocean with H2 production via hydrothermal water-rock reactions. Chemolithoautotrophic methanogenesis is thermo...

Yeni araştırmalar, Satürn’ün uydusu Enceladus’un buz altı okyanusunda yaşamı destekleyebilecek koşulların sanılandan daha güçlü olabileceğini gösterdi.

Uma análise de dados da Cassini sugere que o congelamento lento e a fragmentação do spray de Enceladus separam os sais — sem provar a existência de vida.

Enceladus may naturally separate and concentrate chemicals from its hidden ocean as droplets slowly freeze and shatter on their way into space. The process could explain Cassini’s puzzling ice-grain c...

Two new studies suggest that Saturn’s moon Enceladus may be an even more compelling target in the search for extraterrestrial life. If scientists want to search an alien ocean for life, Enceladus offers a rare advantage: the ocean sends samples into space. Saturn’s icy moon hides a global ocean beneath its frozen surface, but researchers do not necessarily need to drill through kilometers of ice to study it. Powerful plumes erupt from fractures near the south pole, carrying water vapor and frozen material from the ocean hundreds of kilometers (hundreds of miles) above the surface, where spacecraft can sample it directly. Now, two studies published in Science Advances suggest that Enceladus may be even more favorable for the search for life than previously understood. One shows that the process creating its plume particles naturally separates and concentrates chemicals from the ocean. The other demonstrates that a methane-producing microorganism from Earth can remain active under laboratory conditions designed to resemble the moon’s unusual chemistry. An Ocean That Comes to the Spacecraft Enceladus has become one of the leading places to investigate potentially habitable environments beyond Earth. Although its surface is frozen, gravitational interactions within the Saturn system generate internal heating that...

Enceladus may naturally separate and concentrate chemicals from its hidden ocean as droplets slowly freeze and shatter on their way into space. The process could explain Cassini’s puzzling ice-grain c...

An international team that includes researchers from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Institute of Science Tokyo has now investigated what happens to that ocean water as it moves from beneath the surface and eventually becomes the tiny ice grains detected in space. Cassini Found Surprisingly Diverse Ice Grains Between 2004 and 2017, the Cosmic Dust Analyzer on NASA's Cassini spacecraft measured the composition of individual ice particles in Saturn's E-ring. That ring is continually supplied with material erupting from Enceladus. A team led by Prof Frank Postberg at Freie Universität Berlin examined 961 mass spectra from salt-rich grains known as Type 3 particles. If the grains were simply small samples of the same ocean water, scientists might expect them to contain broadly similar mixtures of salts. Instead, the grains varied dramatically. Some were especially rich in sodium chloride, while others contained higher amounts of carbonates, phosphates or potassium chloride. One particularly striking pattern was that chloride and carbonate rarely appeared together in the same sodium-rich particle. That raised a basic puzzle. If all of these grains came from the same ocean, why did their chemical compositions differ so much? Recreating Enceladus' Ocean Droplets in the Lab To explore...

Two new studies suggest that Saturn’s moon Enceladus may be an even more compelling target in the search for extraterrestrial life. If scientists want to search an alien ocean for life, Enceladus offers a rare advantage: the ocean sends samples into space. Saturn’s icy moon hides a global ocean beneath its frozen surface, but researchers [...]

Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus features chemical signatures consistent with an alkaline soda ocean with H2 production via hydrothermal water-rock reactions. Chemolithoautotrophic methanogenesis is thermo...

New research suggests Enceladus may be an especially promising place to search for extraterrestrial life: microbes similar to those found near Earth's hydrothermal vents survived in lab conditions designed to mimic the Saturnian moon's subsurface ocean. A separate study also found that material blas...

Ob es außer uns Menschen und den anderen Erdbewohnern da draußen im All noch mehr Leben gibt, das ist eine faszinierende und immer noch unbeantwortete Frage. Aber: Möglicherweise ist außerirdisches Le...

YouTube video by Zeke Darwin

New research suggests Enceladus may be an especially promising place to search for extraterrestrial life: microbes similar to those found near Earth's hydrothermal vents survived in lab conditions designed to mimic the Saturnian moon's subsurface ocean. A separate study also found that material blasted from Enceladus' plumes may naturally separate and concentrate salts, organics and potential biosignatures into individual ice grains, potentially making them easier for future spacecraft to detect. "That is great news in the search for life," Frank Postberg, lead author of one and co-author of the other of these new studies and professor at Freie Universitat Berlin, said in a statement. "Future spacecraft will have to analyze many individual ice particles in the plume. But if they come across one with microbial material in it, they could identify biosignatures in the particle relatively easy with already available technology." Space.com reports: Enceladus isn't the only place in our solar system with water -- so, why is it so exciting in the search for life? Well, it has to do with the seafloor of its extensive, liquid ocean. Down deep at the bottom of this body of water, scientists think hydrothermal processes, or movement or reactions with hot water under the surface, are taking place. The plumes shooting upward from the ocean also contain trace amounts of salts and organic compounds. NASA's Cassini spacecraft found these traces when it flew through the plumes over a decade ago. Between the hydrothermal activity and the organics and minerals in the water, this moon's ocean has a number of aspects that could be involved in supporting life. What's more, using a combination of Cassini data, theoretical models and laboratory experimentation, in Postberg's new study the team found that the plume's water droplets blasting out into space at up to 621 miles per hour (1,000 kilometers per hour) don't freeze as quickly as expected. Before, scientists thought the freeze would happen instantaneously once the droplets reached space, but Postberg and fellow researchers say they found the freezing would actually happen much slower. They also found that during this freezing process, the salt, organic compounds (and maybe possible signs of life) in the water droplets separate from one another. Not only that, but the team says that as the particles are blasted out into space, they should often collide with the icy cracks of the planet's surface. This ultimately would leave behind tiny shards of frozen droplets with individually separated out components. Essentially, it's like the planet has organized its oceanic ingredients into tiny, frozen particle fragments. This work is described in two new studies published in the journal Science Advances here and here. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New research suggests Enceladus may be an especially promising place to search for extraterrestrial life: microbes similar to those found near Earth's hydrothermal vents survived in lab conditions designed to mimic the Saturnian moon's subsurface ocean. A separate study also found that material blas...

New research suggests Enceladus may be an especially promising place to search for extraterrestrial life: microbes similar to those found near Earth's hydrothermal vents survived in lab conditions designed to mimic the Saturnian moon's subsurface ocean. A separate study also found that material blasted from Enceladus' plumes may naturally separate and concentrate salts, organics and potential biosignatures into individual ice grains, potentially making them easier for future spacecraft to detect. "That is great news in the search for life," Frank Postberg, lead author of one and co-author of the other of these new studies and professor at Freie Universitat Berlin, said in a statement. "Future spacecraft will have to analyze many individual ice particles in the plume. But if they come across one with microbial material in it, they could identify biosignatures in the particle relatively easy with already available technology." Space.com reports: Enceladus isn't the only place in our solar system with water -- so, why is it so exciting in the search for life? Well, it has to do with the seafloor of its extensive, liquid ocean. Down deep at the bottom of this body of water, scientists think hydrothermal processes, or movement or reactions with hot water under the surface, are taking place. The plumes shooting upward from the ocean also contain trace amounts of salts and organic compounds. NASA's Cassini spacecraft found these traces when it flew through the plumes over a decade ago. Between the hydrothermal activity and the organics and minerals in the water, this moon's ocean has a number of aspects that could be involved in supporting life. What's more, using a combination of Cassini data, theoretical models and laboratory experimentation, in Postberg's new study the team found that the plume's water droplets blasting out into space at up to 621 miles per hour (1,000 kilometers per hour) don't freeze as quickly as expected. Before, scientists thought the freeze would happen instantaneously once the droplets reached space, but Postberg and fellow researchers say they found the freezing would actually happen much slower. They also found that during this freezing process, the salt, organic compounds (and maybe possible signs of life) in the water droplets separate from one another. Not only that, but the team says that as the particles are blasted out into space, they should often collide with the icy cracks of the planet's surface. This ultimately would leave behind tiny shards of frozen droplets with individually separated out components. Essentially, it's like the planet has organized its oceanic ingredients into tiny, frozen particle fragments. This work is described in two new studies published in the journal Science Advances here and here. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ur-Bakterien, die auf der Erde in der Tiefsee leben, könnten den harschen Umständen im Ozean unter der Eiskruste des Mondes trotzen, zeigen Laborexperimente