WE might not be alone in the galaxy anymore after scientists recently found a key element for life may exist in an ocean on Saturn’s moon.
Last month, a group of eight scientists published an academic article revealing that Saturn’s moon Enceladus “has a potentially habitable subsurface water ocean that contains canonical building blocks of life.”
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These building blocks are essential for a healthy life. Their researchThe potential for phosphate to be in the ocean was discovered.
As it forms the sugar-phosphate backbone in DNA and RNA, phosphorus is an essential element of all life. Royal Society of Chemistry.
According to reports, previous studies suggested that the element was rare on Saturn’s moon. Space.comSome suggested that the phosphorus might dissolve.
The latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science journal, found evidence. “for its availability”The ocean.
“While the bio-essential element phosphorus has yet to be identified directly, our team discovered evidence for its availability in the ocean beneath the moon’s icy crust,”Christopher Glein is a senior researcher scientist at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and co-author of the article.
“The underlying geochemistry has an elegant simplicity that makes the presence of dissolved phosphorus inevitable, reaching levels close to or even higher than those in modern Earth seawater,” Glein added.
“What this means for astrobiology is that we can be more confident than before that the ocean of Enceladus is habitable.”
To come to this conclusion, the group of scientists analyzed collected data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft which visited Saturn’s system up until 2017.
The spacecraft found the subsurface water of Enceladus and collected data from water vapor samples and ice grains that were ejected by plumes.
“What we have learned is that the plume contains almost all the basic requirements of life as we know it,”Glein spoke in September.
“While the bioessential element phosphorus has yet to be identified directly, our team discovered evidence for its availability in the ocean beneath the moon’s icy crust.”
Scientists performed various research tasks during their research. “thermodynamic and kinetic modeling”To simulate how seafloor minerals might dissolve in the ocean, in order to determine how phosphate would react.
They decided to abandon all previous research and conclude that “dissolved phosphorus is inferred to reach concentrations higher than or at least similar to those in modern Earth seawater.”
However, before the scientific community can confirm that life might actually exist in Enceladus’s ocean, another mission to Saturn must be occur.
“We need to get back to Enceladus to see if a habitable ocean is actually inhabited,” Glein said.