

Christopher Glein, a co-author on the paper and a pioneer of extraterrestrial chemical oceanography. “The amount of molecular hydrogen we detected is high enough to support microbes similar to those that live near hydrothermal vents on Earth,” said SwRI’s Dr. We have not found evidence of the presence of microbial life in the ocean of Enceladus, but the discovery of hydrogen gas and the evidence for ongoing hydrothermal activity offer a tantalizing suggestion that habitable conditions could exist beneath the moon’s icy crust.”

“Our results indicate the same chemical energy source is present in the ocean of Enceladus. Designed specifically for Account Executives to.
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Hunter Waite, principal investigator of Cassini’s Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS). 25K views 2 years ago Scratchpad (is the fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of daily to-dos. “Hydrogen is a source of chemical energy for microbes that live in the Earth’s oceans near hydrothermal vents,” said SwRI’s Dr. And Enceladus appears to have molecular hydrogen in its ice plumes, suggesting the existence of hydrothermal vents. Scientists with NASA’s Cassini mission determined that the plume they found was favorable to methanogenesis, which is when microbes gobble up hydrogen and carbon and then emit methane.

While it’s not likely to host sentient life, Enceladus could host some form of microbial alien life, and that alone would be a tremendous breakthrough. Scientists have found hydrothermal vents on the moon Enceladus, the same kind of hydrothermal vents found here on Earth and which scientists believe were the breeding grounds of life on our planet.Įnceladus is a frozen wasteland, but deep underneath its icy crusts are subterranean oceans. NASA scientists have just stumbled upon something big on a moon that orbits Saturn, and it could result in a huge breakthrough in our search for alien life. Brown A mysterious moon orbiting Saturn could hold the key to the question of whether alien life exists in our solar system.
