According to a study published in Nature Astronomy, the toxic gas hydrogen cyanide is present on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Hydrogen cyanide is a molecule that is essential for the formation of amino acids, which are a basic ingredient of life.
Hydrogen cyanide is also a source of chemical energy that could potentially sustain life.
According to NASA, Enceladus appears to have all three ingredients that scientists think life needs:
- Liquid water
- A source of energy
- The right chemical ingredients
In 2005, the Cassini spacecraft began multiple close flybys of Enceladus, revealing its surface and environment in greater detail. Cassini discovered water-rich plumes venting from the south polar region.
Scientists have also found that Enceladus’ ice grains contain a rich array of minerals and organic compounds, including the ingredients for amino acids.
It’s also a Building Block of Life. Enceladus’ status as a target in the search for life keeps rising. We’ve known for years that plumes erupting from the ocean under the moon’s icy shell contain important organic compounds related to life
Enceladus contains five of the six main elements needed for life as we know it: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. The sixth element, phosphorus, is the least common of the six chemical elements considered necessary to all living things.
Enceladus also contains other building blocks of life, including: Water, Carbon dioxide, Methane, Ammonia, Hydrogen gas.
However, scientists stress that the presence of these elements is only evidence that Enceladus is potentially habitable, not that it is inhabited. Life, either past or present, has not been confirmed anywhere beyond Earth
Some researchers believe Enceladus is one of the most likely places to find extraterrestrial life. Enceladus is a moon of Saturn covered in ice, with a salty ocean hidden beneath.
According to NASA, the Cassini spacecraft has found no evidence of life on Enceladus. However, NASA also says that if life is found on Enceladus, it would suggest life is common throughout the cosmos.
NASA has also found evidence of additional energy chemical sources in Enceladus’ subsurface ocean. These sources are more powerful and diverse than the making of methane.
NASA has listed a mission to Enceladus as one of its highest priorities for the coming decades. The Enceladus Orbilander is a proposed NASA mission that would orbit Enceladus for a year and a half, sampling its water plumes. It would then land on the surface for two years to study materials for evidence of life
The Orbilander mission would not launch until 2038 and arrive at Enceladus until at least 2050. This is due to budget constraints and the fact that Enceladus’ south pole will be in sunlight at that time.
NASA is also providing expert reviewers and feedback on the design of the Breakthrough Enceladus mission, a privately funded astrobiology mission. The Breakthrough Enceladus mission aims to assess the possibility of life on Enceladus
Breakthrough Enceladus is a proposed privately funded astrobiology mission by Breakthrough Initiatives founded by Yuri Milner. Its aim is to assess the possibility of life on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. NASA will be “providing expert reviewers and feedback on their design
According to a study published in Nature Astronomy, hydrogen cyanide is present in the waters of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The study is based on data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
Hydrogen cyanide is a toxic gas that’s essential for the formation of amino acids, which are a basic ingredient of life. NASA scientists discovered the gas in the icy geysers on Enceladus, which suggests that the moon could potentially support life.
Nature Astronomy is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. The first issue was published in January 2017
Enceladus is the brightest white object in the solar system, reflecting up to 90% of the light that hits its surface. This makes it extremely cold, with an average temperature of -330°F (-201°C
Enceladus is one of the coldest places in the Saturn system. Its surface temperature at noon reaches only −198°C (75.1 K; −324.4°F).
Enceladus is an ice-covered moon with a huge ocean of liquid water underneath its icy crust. It has a moderately alkaline ocean with a pH (acidity) between 7.95 and 9.05. Oceans on Earth currently have an average pH of 8.1.
Enceladus has a wide range of surface features, including old, heavily cratered regions and young, tectonically deformed terrain. It also has an icy surface with massive fissures called “tiger stripes”.
Enceladus has large water geysers that spew icy water hundreds of kilometers into space. This material forms one of Saturn’s fainter rings, the E ring, and also rains down on the planet
Enceladus is covered in water ice that reflects sunlight like fresh snow. It reflects almost 100% of the sunlight that hits it. Because of this, the surface temperature is extremely cold, about -201° C (-330° F
However, there is no sunlight and little heat in the deep abyss of Enceladus. Hydrothermal vents on Enceladus’ ocean floor could provide localized heat and nutrients, similar to Earth’s oceans
Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, is considered one of the best places in our solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. This is because it has a global ocean, heat, and organic molecules
Several years ago, five of the six essential elements for life on Earth were detected in Enceladus plume samples. The sixth element, phosphorus, has never been found
In 2017, scientists found evidence that the plumes erupting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus contain chemistry that could sustain life. The plumes contain molecules like carbon dioxide, methane, molecular hydrogen, water, and ammonia. The combination of carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen suggests methanogenesis, a metabolic process that produces methane.
The plumes erupt from cracks in the moon’s icy crust at the south pole, called tiger stripes. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sampled the plumes directly, confirming the presence of organic molecules. However, the spacecraft wasn’t designed to detect life itself.
Organic compounds are compounds that contain carbon and hydrogen, and are essential to human functioning. The four major classes of organic compounds found in biology are proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids.
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