Could life be on Saturn’s moon?
WE may not have found a colony of little green men just yet – but we could be a step closer.
For scientists have discovered that one of Saturn’s moons carries all the ingredients needed for life to evolve.
Complex carbon-based molecules have been detected erupting from the crust of Enceladus. The discovery, by Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft, means the moon has all the building blocks for simple lifeforms – potentially similar to microbes living in extreme conditions on Earth.
Dr Christopher Glein, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said: ‘This moon is the only body besides Earth known to simultaneously satisfy all of the basic requirements for life as we know it.’
Enceladus – Saturn’s sixth largest moon – is around 630million miles from Earth and extremely cold. It has ice volcanoes and an underground ocean. The carbon discovery was made as Cassini sampled a plume of material emerging from beneath the surface of Enceladus.
Previous discoveries have found hydrogen molecules – which could be used as a food source for alien life, as it is on Earth. Dr Hunter Waite, co-author of the paper published in the journal Nature, said: ‘Hydrogen provides a source of chemical energy supporting microbes that live in the Earth’s oceans.
‘Once you have identified a potential food source, the next question to ask is “what is the nature of the complex organics in the ocean?”’
Dr Glein added: ‘We are, yet again, blown away by Enceladus.
‘We must be cautious, but it is exciting to ponder that this finding indicates the biological synthesis of organic molecules on Enceladus is possible.’
Conditions on Mars were conducive to life evolving some 100million years earlier than it did on Earth, according to researchers.
An analysis of meteorites has shown that the surface of the red planet cooled down much sooner that previously thought. The team from the University of Copenhagen said this provided a potential platform for life.
Commenting on the findings, Linda Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University said: ‘Mars had a head start on Earth in the planetary evolution game.’