Speaking prior to the announcement, Jeffrey Seewald of the Schmidt Ocean Institute said: "Waite et al's results represent an important advance in assessing the habitability of Enceladus". The heat is enough to maintain a 10-km thick liquid ocean underneath the thick ice layer.
"People have dived down to the bottom of the seafloor and taken samples, and you see all this hydrogen spewing out of these systems and the microbes down there are eating the hydrogen", said Glein. However, he added that further measurements of both phosphorus and sulfur. Cassini has shown that Enceladus has four of the six elements present (phosphorus and sulfur are missing), and it also has an energy source (some of which helps create hydrogen). The Spitzer Space Telescope found seven Earth-sized planets around a single star, which sets a new NASA discovery record for the largest solar system around a single star.
If hydrothermal chemical reactions are indeed responsible for the molecular hydrogen, that means the methane previously detected by Cassini might be generated from carbon dioxide (also detected by Cassini) through a reaction with hydrogen.
They're not just nice to look at. Enceladus has a subsurface ocean, while Titan has lakes and seas made of liquid methane and ethane.
'Charging Bull' Artist Calls for Removal of 'Fearless Girl' Statue
Di Modica is arguing the permits that allow the new statue to stay until February violate his legal rights . Samuels says the " Fearless Girl " has instilled public art as social commentary.
With this new information, astrobiologists can now begin focusing their attention on the moon in the hope of sending a probe that could one day examine the ocean in unprecedented detail, and possibly find signs of life.
"The risk is that once its fuel runs out and we lose control, in years to come it may crash into Enceladus and potentially contaminate the icy moon with earthly bacteria". "We tend to think that space is very hostile and dry, and for the most part it is, so finding water anywhere is very significant". Cassini is about to begin its "Grand Finale" tour, where it will plunge into Saturn in September, ending a 13-year mission that garnered some substantial scientific data and a better understanding of the complex system.
With programs like SETI and Kepler looking for hints of invaluable life like conditions lights year away, here comes another piece of news that we might have struck some luck in our discovery right under our nose. Yes!
Whatever the space mission finds will be interesting. "If it doesn't exist, and all the ingredients are there, why doesn't it exist?"
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