Saturn's Moon Enceladus May Have Warm Ocean, Boosting Likelihood Of Life On Icy Satellite <br />Scientists have found yet another tantalizing clue that Saturn's moon Enceladus may have the potential to host alien life: Hot <br />springs. <br />Yes, new research reveals the first clear evidence that there could be hydrothermal activity in the icy moon's underground ocean. <br />“These findings add to the possibility that Enceladus ... could contain environments suitable for living organisms,” John <br /> <br />Grunsfeld, an astronaut and associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., said in a written <br /> <br />statement issued by the agency. “The locations in our solar system where extreme environments occur in which life might exist may <br /> <br />bring us closer to answering the question: are we alone in the universe.” <br />Tiny grains yield their secrets. For the research, an international team of scientists analyzed data on microscopic grains of <br /> <br />rock, which were spewed into space by Enceladus's geysers and collected by NASA's Cassini space probe's cosmic dust analyzer <br /> <br />(CDA) instrument. <br />The analysis, along with computer simulations and experiments in the lab, suggested that the silica grains were formed in <br /> <br />Enceladus's vast ocean. Scientists discovered this ocean, which is at least as big as North America's Lake Superior, last April. <br />According to the new hypothesis, minerals from Enceladus's rocky core dissolved in hot water near the seafloor -- estimated to be <br /> <br />around 194 degrees Fahrenheit (90 degrees Celsius). As the hot water rose toward the ocean's surface, it cooled, causing the <br /> <br />minerals to condense into the tiny silica grains -- just like the ones found in sand and quartz on Earth. <br />The search for E.T. The new research suggests that Enceladus has three main ingredients needed for life to evolve: water, heat, <br /> <br />and nutrients. Just last year, scientists mapped out 101 geysers of water vapor and ice near Enceladus's south pole. <br />And given that the moon isn't the only one of its kind, this has intriguing implications for the possibility of life elsewhere in <br /> <br />the Milky Way. <br />“Enceladus may even represent a very common habitat in the galaxy: icy moons around giant gas planets, located well beyond the <br /> <br />‘habitable zone’ of a star, but still able to maintain liquid water below their icy surface,” Nicolas Altobelli, a Cassini <br /> <br />project scientist, said in a written statement issued by the European Space Agency. <br />Researchers are eager to examine samples from Enceladus to determine whether life exists there, though that may take years. <br />"It will take more than 20 years to send a space probe to Enceladus and bring samples back to Earth," Dr. Yasuhito Sekine, an <br /> <br />associate professor at the University of Tokyo and one of the researchers behind the new finding, told Reuters. "So we're taking <br /> <br />a long breath until we finally get the sample in our hands - maybe more than 30 years - but hopefully by the end of this <br /> <br />century, we will reach the conclusion." <br />The research was published online Mar. 11 in Nature.
