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enceladus

SPACE: Signs of Possible Life on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus?

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Enceladus - Pixabay

The methane wafting from Enceladus may be a sign that life teems in the Saturn moon’s subsurface sea, a new study reports. In 2005, NASA’s Cassini Saturn orbiter discovered geysers blasting particles of water ice into space from “tiger stripe” fractures near Enceladus’ south pole. That material, which forms a plume that feeds Saturn’s E ring (the planet’s second-outermost ring), is thought to come from a huge ocean of liquid water that sloshes beneath the moon’s icy shell. And there’s more than just water ice in the plume. During numerous close flybys of the 313-mile-wide (504 kilometers) Enceladus, Cassini spotted … Read more

SPACE: Signs of Life

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Enceladus - NASA

Enceladus – NASA When it comes to looking for alien life, scientists mostly focus on where there is water. Now researchers suggest that looking at “bioessential” elements such as phosphorus and molybdenum could help judge a world’s potential for life. There is life virtually wherever there is water on Earth, from clouds high above the surface to the deepest layer of Earth’s crust. As such, the search for life outside Earth typically concentrates on worlds that are “habitable,” possessing temperatures conducive to hosting liquid water on its surface. For example, although the surface of Venus is currently hot enough to … Read more

News: NASA Probe Sends Spectacular Images of Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus

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NASA’s Cassini probe just sent back some amazing photos of Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth-largest, ice-covered moon. Enceladus was recently confirmed to have a global underground ocean under its icy crust. The moon is 500 km in diameter. It also has geysers that erupt from holes in its crust. The new photos offer closer views than ever before. Full Story at Towleroad.com

News: NASA Discovers Global Underground Ocean on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

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Planning a sea-faring vacation to escape from the rest of the world? Don’t discount Saturn’s moon Enceladus, as NASA has just released new research that indicates a global ocean lies underneath its icy surface. Using research from the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft that is scheduled to make a flyby of Enceladus on October 28, NASA was able to detect a slight wobble on the moon that researchers say can only be accounted for by a underground ocean. “This was a hard problem that required years of observations, and calculations involving a diverse collection of disciplines, but we are confident we finally got … Read more