عمومی | New Scientist

Enceladus is spewing out organic molecules necessary for life

Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a subsurface ocean – and it may be coated with complex organic molecules that could be stepping stones to life.

Plumes of liquid water from the ocean spurt out of Enceladus’ southern regions and can fly high enough to escape the small moon’s gravity. Some of this material actually ends up around Saturn, forming its diffuse E ring.

During the course of its mission, the Cassini spacecraft flew through both the plumes and the E ring, collecting samples of ice grains and frozen organic molecules. …