A key component to life was just discovered to be spewing from one of Saturn’s moons.
According to a NASA press release, scientists reviewing data from the agency’s Cassini mission, which launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 1997, have detected icy grains of phosphorus in the spray shooting up from Enceladus’ frozen surface.
Enceladus, like several other moons in the outer solar system, contains a liquid ocean beneath a thick crust of ice —an ocean which could harbor life.
What makes the discovery of phosphorus so important is that it is among the rarest of the building blocks for life.
“We previously found that Enceladus’ ocean is rich in a variety of organic compounds,” said Frank Postberg, a planetary scientist at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, who led the new study. “But now, this new result reveals the clear chemical signature of substantial amounts of phosphorus salts inside icy particles ejected into space by the small moon’s plume. It’s the first time this essential element has been discovered in an ocean beyond Earth.”
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Where did the particles come from?
Enceladus is known to possess a subsurface ocean, and like Yellowstone’s “Old Faithful,” water from that ocean erupts through cracks in the moon’s icy crust as geysers at its south pole. The plumes from those geysers then feed Saturn’s E ring with icy particles.
During its 13 year mission at Saturn, which ended in 2017, Cassini flew through the plume and E ring numerous times. Scientists found the ice grains contain a wide variety minerals and organic compounds – including the ingredients for amino acids – associated with life as we know it.
Specifically, the ice grains revealed concentrations of sodium, potassium, chlorine, and carbonate-containing compounds, and computer modeling suggested Enceladus’ ocean is of moderate alkalinity – all factors that favor habitable conditions.
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Why is phosphorus so important?
Phosphorus is a building block for DNA, which forms chromosomes and carries genetic information, and is present in the bones of mammals, cell membranes, and ocean-dwelling plankton. Phosphorus is also a fundamental part of energy-carrying molecules present in all life on Earth. Life wouldn’t be possible without it.
What’s next?
NASA testing snake-like robot to explore icy moons in outer solar system
NASA scientists develop snake-like probe to explore moons that may harbor oceans beneath an icy crust
Rob Landers, Florida Today
NASA’s scientists are currently working on a prototype probe called EELS designed to explore Enceladus’ icy crust and autonavigate down through cracks in the ice and burrow deep through the frozen outer layer to find the moon’s ocean and search for life.
