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Microbes Found in Earth's Deep Ocean Might Grow on Saturn's Moon Enceladus (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the the-search-continues dept.

Life as we know it needs three things: energy, water and chemistry. Saturn's icy moon Enceladus has them all, as NASA spacecraft Cassini confirmed in the final years of its mission to that planet. From a report: Scientists have successfully cultivated a few of these tiny organisms in the lab under the same conditions that are thought to exist on the distant moon, opening up the possibility that life might be lurking under the world's surface. Enceladus is one of the most intriguing places in the Solar System since it has many crucial ingredients needed for life to thrive. For one, it has lots of water. NASA's Cassini spacecraft -- which explored the Saturn system from 2004 to 2017 -- found that plumes of gas and particles erupt from the south pole of Enceladus, and these geysers stem from a global liquid water ocean underneath the moon's crust. Scientists think that there may be hot vents in this ocean, too -- cracks in the sea floor where heated rock mingles with the frigid waters. This mixing of hot and cold material seems to be creating a soup of chemical compounds that might support life.

10 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory A.C. Clarke by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2

    "All these worlds are yours, except Europa."

    And Enceladus, it seems....

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    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    1. Re:Obligatory A.C. Clarke by ChatHuant · · Score: 4, Funny

      Does Enceladus have chemistry? I heard life needs chemistry.

      Well, TF summary mentions it has soup. That's good enough for me.

  2. Life as we know it needs one thing by thrillseeker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Life as we know it need one thing: a starting point of Earth. Everything else remains conjecture.

    1. Re:Life as we know it needs one thing by Gavagai80 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The concept that Life comes from Non-life is speculation which I would call wild.

      There could hardly be anything less wild. We see all the different components of life developing as non-life. We even have intermediate forms that we're not sure whether to call life or not. Pointing out that we don't see a non-life-form actually changing into life is no different than shouting "missing link!" at human evolution when we have dozens of links. Humans are not omniscient, so we will never have every single piece to the puzzle -- that doesn't mean we can't tell what the puzzle is a picture of on a large scale.

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    2. Re:Life as we know it needs one thing by jezwel · · Score: 2

      The concept that Life comes from Non-life is speculation which I would call wild.

      I look around and conclude that either Life came from Non-life, or it was seeded from elsewhere that had life.
      That second option also has the same conclusion.

      Somewhere in the universe either Life came from non-Life, or there was extra-universe intervention by an outside agent (which again has the same two options for where they came from).

  3. Life on Enceladus? by fredrated · · Score: 2

    I wonder if it's tasty.

  4. Panspermia You by Humbubba · · Score: 2
    Getting some of Earth's microbes living on Enceladus would be exciting, but not surprising. Earthworms can grow in simulated Martian soil, and 4.5 billion years old meteorites have been found that have the building blocks of life. All this suggests life is at least possible elsewhere in the solar system.

    What is really surprising is bacteria has been found growing in space, on the outside of the International Space Station. Is it possible that our exploration of space could inadvertently be leaving a trail of life in its entirety, or at least highly developed constituent parts? If it doesn't yet exist, Earth might become the origin of extraterrestrial life.

    https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/mars-soil-earthworm-agriculture-science-spd/

    http://www.iflscience.com/space/cosmonauts-find-live-bacteria-on-the-hull-of-the-iss/

    https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/1219_TVsugarmeteors.html

    1. Re:Panspermia You by Gavagai80 · · Score: 2

      Is it possible that our exploration of space could inadvertently be leaving a trail of life

      That's why NASA has gone to great lengths to sterilize spacecraft headed to places like Mars. There's even a planetary protection officer.

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  5. Re:There's "supports", and there's "managed to sta by Gavagai80 · · Score: 2

    Life much more likely starts in mild friendly conditions, and if it thrives some of it evolves to take on the extremes.

    The hydrothermal ocean vents with extreme pressure and no light where we call life "extremophiles" are commonly thought to be where life began. In reality, we're the extremophiles -- nature's weirdest experiments that haven't died yet, living in the harshly varied surface conditions instead of in the safety of the unchanging depths of the ocean. The so-called extremophiles are the easiest form of life to develop.

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  6. Underground Microbes Live on Radioactivity by InterGuru · · Score: 3, Informative

    A Princeton-led research group has discovered (http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S16/13/72E53/index.xml?section=newsreleases) an isolated community of bacteria nearly two miles underground that derives all of its energy from the decay of radioactive rocks rather than from sunlight. According to members of the team, the finding suggests life might exist in similarly extreme conditions even on other worlds.