Life Forms Similar to Those on Earth May Be Able to Exist on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

Phosphorous has been discovered on Saturn’s moon Enceladus through the analysis of icy particles emitted from its ocean plumes, as detected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This finding indicates that Enceladus possesses all the necessary chemical components for life as we understand it on Earth. According to Morgan Cable, an astrobiology chemist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this discovery confirms that Enceladus is habitable for life as we know it.

Cassini, which crashed in Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017, collected data by passing through Enceladus’ constantly erupting geysers to its south pole and Saturn’s E ring, which also contained particles that escaped from the moon. Beneath the icy crust of Enceladus is a warm underground ocean more than 30 miles deep that surrounds the entire moon. Eruptions at its south pole spew icy particles into space, allowing researchers like Cassini to study the ocean’s chemical makeup without falling or even touching the moon’s surface.

Data from previous flights showed that the moon had all the essential building blocks of life – carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur – except phosphorus. A team of planetary scientists found nine grains containing phosphate (phosphorus bound to oxygen atoms) in about 1,000 samples that scientists had initially overlooked. The low amount observed reflects the scarcity of phosphorus. “Of the six bioessential elements, phosphorus is by far the rarest in the cosmos,” said Frank Postberg, lead author of the study.

Of course, Enceladus containing the requirements for life does not necessarily mean that the moon has life. “The next step is to find out if it’s actually inhabited, and that will take a future mission to answer that question,” Cable said. “But this is exciting because it makes Enceladus an even more attractive destination to do those kinds of searches.” NASA will get a chance to learn more when the Dragonfly mission heads to Saturn’s moon Titan in 2027; another proposed mission could arrive at Enceladus around 2050. Additionally, the James Webb Space Telescope may help shed further light on the chemical decay of Enceladus’ warm subsurface ocean.