appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Business Insider

By Dave Mosher
Two years before NASA destroyed its Cassini spacecraft in the clouds of Saturn, the space agency flew the robot through geysers of ice blasting out of the planet’s moon Enceladus.
The plumes come from a giant saltwater ocean hidden beneath the moon’s icy crust. The water seeps through cracks at Enceladus’ south pole, where it boils into the vacuum of space and forms 300-mile-tall curtains of ice particles.
Scientists just discovered that NASA flew through a blast of alien ocean water in 1997 — and a US$2 billion mission may soon ‘taste’ it for signs of life
Ever since Cassini’s nuclear-powered geyser-dive in October 2015, scientists have pored over the probe’s trove of data. They’ve found all sorts of eyebrow-raising chemicals, including small organic (carbon-containing) molecules such as acetylene, formaldehyde, methane, and propane.
Icy moons in the solar system hide so much liquid water, they make Earth look like a desert planet
But this week, researchers announced the detection of long, messy strings of organic molecules that could be indicative of water that’s habitable to life. Or perhaps something even more exciting.
“We cannot decide whether the origin of this complex material is biotic or not, but there is astrobiological potential,” Nozair Khawaja, a researcher at Heidelberg University, told Gizmodo.
Scientists say alien life may exist in our Solar System – on one of Saturn’s moons
Translation: It just might be signs of microbial aliens, though it’s too soon to say.
Khawaja and a multinational group of 20 other space scientists published a study in the journal Nature on Wednesday about their discovery of the organic molecules, which they call macromolecular compounds.
“The discovery of macromolecular compounds originating from a moderately warm water environment will fuel interest worldwide in such icy moons as possible habitats for extraterrestrial life,” Mario Trieloff, another study author, said in a press release.
How Enceladus might brew complex organic muck

Recent studies using Cassini’s water-spray data suggest hydrogen is bubbling up from the moon’s ocean bottom, possibly from structures called hydrothermal vents. Khawaja said in the press release that gas bubbles that likely hail from Enceladus’ seafloor “probably transport the molecules to the surface, where they form an organic film.”
He added that the bubbles are hydrophobic or water-repelling, which is why they form a film on top of the water as opposed to dissolving.
“From there, [the film] is launched into space together with ocean water droplets,” he said.
Hydrothermal vents can generate hydrogen gas. They litter Earth’s seafloor near volcanically active regions, spewing out nutrient-rich hot water that may make them bastions of life. In fact, scientists in 2017 announced the discovery of what may be 3.77-to-4.28-billion-year-old fossils that originated at hydrothermal vents on Earth.

But the new study in Nature is far from definitive evidence of organic alien goop.
Water is being pulled toward Enceladus’ core and heated up under pressure, so it’s possible that carbon that’s been present in Enceladus since its formation (every world contains a little) is reacting with minerals to form more complex molecules. Ancient asteroids that drift through space also harbour complex organic molecules, but are almost certainly devoid of life.
Cassini’s instruments weren’t designed to analyse organic molecules for alien or non-alien origins, and the spacecraft is now gone.
It may be decades before we find out for sure: There’s not yet a mission funded to return to Enceladus, and Saturn’s increasingly famous moon is roughly 890 million miles away, so it can take nearly seven years to get a probe there.
Seeking signs of life at Europa

Those hoping to find signs of alien life shouldn’t despair, though.
Both NASA and the European Space Agency are planning to send spacecraft to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. That ice-covered world has an even larger subsurface ocean, is spraying out water, and might also be rich with a soup of organic molecules that alien microbes could feed on or generate.
The ESA probe, called the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), is scheduled to launch in 2022 and reach Jupiter in 2030. The mission calls for two flybys of Europa from about 200 miles away.
The other mission is NASA’s roughly US$2 billion Europa Clipper probe, which may launch sometime between 2022 and 2025 and arrive about five years later.

The Europa Clipper will make 47 flybys and come within 20 miles of Europa’s surface. That would give the probe unprecedented access to water plumes and the ability to sample the water for salts, organic compounds, and other chemicals.
“The instruments are designed with Europa’s plumes in mind, allowing us to infer the oceans composition and thus its suitability for life, and even to look for direct chemical signs of extant life,” Steve Vance, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), previously told Business Insider.
Bob Pappalardo,
previously told Business Insider that oceans on moons like Europa may be the most common habitats for life that exist in the universe.
“If there’s life at Europa, it’d almost certainly be an independently evolved form of life. Would it use DNA or RNA?” Pappalardo said. “Would it use the same chemistry to store and use energy? Discovering extraterrestrial life would revolutionise our understanding of biology.”
See Also:
Jeanette Epps bumped from being the first black astronaut on Space Station
NASA astronaut has tried SpaceX and Boeing’s new spaceships and spacesuits
Over a million space rocks could strike Earth with more energy than a nuclear bomb
Read the original article at Business Insider


Asia’s ‘NewSpace’ economy is about more than just exploration

For SpaceX, global dominance may not be written in the stars

Hong Kong may host Shenzhou-23 crew in 2027, including astronaut Lai Ka-ying

Blue Origin rocket explodes on launch pad during engine-firing test

Space

NASA can’t yet rule out that it didn’t ‘taste’ organic compounds from alien life on one of Saturn’s moons

Saturn's moon Enceladus sprays saltwater into space from a hidden ocean. NASA's Cassini probe in 2015 "tasted" organic molecules in the water while flying through the icy plume. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The size of Europa's ocean compared to Earth's. Amounts of water are shown in zettaliters (ZL), a unit that's equal to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 liters or 1 billion cubic kilometers. Photo: Jenny Cheng and Skye Gould/Business Insider

Bubbles of organic compounds may rise to the surface of Enceladus' hidden ocean. There, they could form a mucky film before being blasted into space through deep cracks in the moon's icy crust. Photo: European Space Agency

A hydrothermal vent or "black smoker chimney." Photo: OAR/National Undersea Research Program (NURP); NOAA

An illustration of NASA's Europa Clipper mission flying over the icy moon of Jupiter. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Tech

Science & Research

NASA flew its Cassini spacecraft through the ice geysers of Enceladus, moon of Saturn that hides an ocean of saltwater


UFOs and Extraterrestrial Life

NASA can’t yet rule out that it didn’t ‘taste’ organic compounds from alien life on one of Saturn’s moons

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}NASA flew its Cassini spacecraft through the ice geysers of Enceladus, moon of Saturn that hides an ocean of saltwater

NASA flew its Cassini spacecraft through the ice geysers of Enceladus, moon of Saturn that hides an ocean of saltwater