2023-06-17 09:00:00
A key element of life discovered on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. Phosphorus is present in its underground oceans.
Very recently, an important discovery has just been made in the quest for extraterrestrial life. Phosphorus, one of the key elements for life, has indeed been discovered in an ocean under the icy surface ofEncelade, one of Saturn’s most famous moons. It was thanks to data collected by NASA’s Cassini probe, which explored Saturn and some of its moons between 2004 and 2017 that this discovery was made.
A key element of life discovered on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons
And for Christopher Glein, of Southwest Research Instituteone of the study’s co-authors, “this is an incredible discovery for astrobiology. […] We found abundant phosphorus in ice plume samples ejected from the subterranean ocean.”
Geysers at the south pole of Enceladus spit very fine particles of ice into space, which feed Saturn’s outermost and thinnest E ring. Experts had previously found minerals and other organic compounds in these ice particles, but never, until now, phosphorus, an essential building block of DNA and RNA. Without phosphorus, no life. If the geochemical models anticipated this presence of phosphorus, nothing had yet been confirmed.
“This is the first time that this essential element has been discovered in an ocean other than on Earth,” added the lead author of the study, Frank Postberg, planetary scientist at the Free University of Berlin, in a press release.
Phosphorus is present in its underground oceans
It is by studying very finely the data collected by the Cosmic Dust Analyzer instrument of the Cassini probe and then by confirming the results in the laboratory that the scientists were able to prove the presence of phosphorus in various soluble forms in the water of this ocean. of Enceladus.
Worlds with oceans hidden under a layer of surface ice are quite numerous. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, has one, as does Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Even on Pluto, the dwarf planet, we find this kind of configuration. To have surface oceans, like Earth, the planet must be at an adequate distance from its star, allowing it to maintain temperatures that support life. With these underground oceans, so many potentially habitable planets are discovered.
As Christopher Glein sums it up very well: “With this discovery, the ocean of Enceladus is now known to satisfy what is generally considered to be the first necessary condition for life. […] The next step is clear – we need to go back to Enceladus to see if the habitable ocean is actually inhabited.” If this is possible, it will not be for now. NASA has indeed proposed a mission to study the surface of this moon, but the launch would not take place before 2038, for an arrival on site in 2050. To be continued!
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