The ice moon Enceladus of Saturn was seen by the James Webb Space Telescope
blasting a "huge plume" of liquid vapor into space; this plume may contain
the building blocks for life.
Enceladus, an ice moon of Saturn, was observed blasting a "huge plume" of
aqueous vapor into space. This plume presumably includes many of the
chemical components necessary for life.
At a meeting on May 17 at the Space Telescope Science Institute in
Baltimore, scientists described the eruption, which the James Webb Space
Telescope (JWST) will be able to see in November 2022.
Planetary astronomer
Sara Faggi
of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center remarked at the conference, "It's
immense," according to Nature.com. Faggi
claims that a comprehensive scientific article on the enormous plume is
forthcoming.
It's not the first time that Enceladus has been observed to eject water,
but the new telescope's increased sensitivity and larger field of view
revealed that the water jets travel far further into space than previously
thought—deeper than the breadth of Enceladus itself. (Enceladus has a
diameter of approximately 504 kilometers, or 313 miles.)
Scientists first became aware of Enceladus' liquid explosions in 2005, when
NASA's Cassini probe observed frozen particles shooting up through wide
lunar fissures known as "tiger stripes." According to
NASA, the eruptions are so strong that one of Saturn's rings is formed from
their debris.
Methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia, organic compounds that comprise the
chemical building blocks required for the emergence of life, were found in
the jets, according to analysis. An international team of experts suggested
in study published last year in
The Planetary Science
Journal that it's even feasible that some of these gases were created by
life itself, burping forth methane deep under the surface of
Enceladus.
Another piece of evidence supporting the existence of life on Enceladus is
water. Despite having a thick coating of water ice covering the entire
surface of Enceladus, studies of the moon's rotation indicate that an
enormous ocean may be concealed beneath the icy crust. The presence of
silica, a typical component of planetary crusts, in the vapor plumes
supports the theory that the spurts of water detected by JWST and Cassini
originate from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor.
Future return missions to search for indications of life on Enceladus are
being discussed by NASA scientists. The projected
Enceladus Orbilander
would spend around six months orbiting the moon while taking samples while
flying through its aqueous plumes. The spaceship would next change into a
lander and touchdown on the moon's frozen surface. Orbilander would be
equipped with a DNA sequencer, a microscope, and tools for weighing and
analyzing molecules. The moon's surface would be remotely scanned by
cameras, radio sounders, and lasers, according to
The Planetary Society.
Another mission idea is to deploy a self-contained "snake robot" into Enceladus' subsurface ocean. The robot, known as the Exobiology
Extant Life Surveyor, has cameras and lidar on its head to aid it in
navigating the uncharted territory of the ocean floor of Enceladus.
