Astronomers in a breakthrough discovery have hinted at the rising life prospects at Saturn’s moons after finding organic substances being ejected out of Enceladus.
Enceladus, the sixth largest of Saturn’s moon, has been a subject of attention in the scientific community that could host extra-terrestrial life.
NASA’s Cassini mission discovered the plume of water ice grains and vapour erupting from the moon’s south polar region.
The James Webb space telescope also captured these plumes, scattering around 6,000 miles into space. These plumes originated from a saltwater ocean that lies beneath the moon’s icy surface.
After analysing these plumes, the researchers have found the presence of organic substances aloof with some types of molecule for the very first time.
According to Dr Noraiz Khawaja, lead author and planetary scientist at Freie University Berlin, “When there is complexity happening, that means that the habitable potential of Enceladus is increasing right now.”
Previously, Khawaja and his team found the presence of salts and organic compounds within ice grains, which were present in a ring of Saturn, called E-ring.
“These grains were just minutes old. It means that what we are capturing here is actually the pure sample from the subsurface,” Khawaja said.
These findings, analysed from the Cosmic Dust Analyzer, do not show that there is life harbouring on Enceladus, but they point to the existence of intricate chemical pathways, leading to the formation of biologically relevant substances.