Complex Organics Bubble up from Ocean-world Enceladus

Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal complex organic molecules originating from Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, strengthening the idea that this ocean world hosts conditions suitable for life. Research results show much larger, heavier molecules than ever before.

Powerful hydrothermal vents mix up material from the moon’s water-filled, porous core with water from the moon’s massive subsurface ocean – and it is released into space, in the form of water vapor and ice grains. A team led by Frank Postberg and Nozair Khawaja of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, continues to examine the makeup of the ejected ice and has recently identified fragments of large, complex organic molecules.

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Credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

A dramatic plume sprays water ice and vapor from the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Cassini's fist hint of this plume came during the spacecraft's first close flyby of the icy moon on February 17, 2005.

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Credits: ESA; F. Postberg et al (2018)

Hydrothermal activity in Enceladus’ core and the rise of organic-rich bubbles.

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NASA's Cassini spacecraft discovered hydrogen in the plume of gas and icy particles spraying from Saturn's moon Enceladus. The discovery means the small, icy moon — which has a global ocean under its surface — has a source of chemical energy that could be useful for microbes, if any exist there. The finding also provides further evidence that warm, mineral-laden water is pouring into the ocean from vents in the seafloor. On Earth, such hydrothermal vents support thriving communities of life in complete isolation from sunlight.

Enceladus now appears likely to have all three of the ingredients scientists think life needs: liquid water, a source of energy (like sunlight or chemical energy), and the right chemical ingredients (like carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen).

Enceladus, one of saturn's moons, impresses with mystery geysers that spit out into space.

On a flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus, the Cassini spacecraft makes an unprecedented discovery that will push the mission to fly closer.