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Ocean Spray On Saturn Moon Contains Crucial Constituents For Life (theguardian.com)
Astronomers have found that blasts of ocean spray erupting from the Saturn moon of Enceladus contain complex organic molecules, "making it the only place beyond Earth known to harbor crucial constituents for life as we know it," reports The Guardian. From the report: Astronomers detected the compounds in plumes of water and ice that shoot from huge fractures in the south pole of Enceladus, a 300-mile-wide ice ball that orbits Saturn along with 52 other moons. Enceladus stands out among the planet's natural satellites because it hosts a global water ocean beneath its frozen crust. German and U.S. scientists found tell-tale signs of organic molecules far more complex than amino acids and 10 times heavier than methane in data gathered by Nasa's Cassini probe as it flew over the fractures on Enceladus. Known as "tiger stripes," the fissures reach several miles down into the ice and are largely filled with ocean water that percolates up from the ocean.
Writing in the journal Nature, Frank Postberg, a planetary scientist who worked on the data at Heidelberg University, and his colleagues describe their analysis of fresh Cassini data that shows that most ice particles blasting out of Enceladus are almost pure water. But a small proportion, about 1%, are rich in organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and potentially nitrogen too. Some were made up of hundreds of atoms. "Our results mark the first ever detection of complex organics coming from an extraterrestrial water world," said Postberg.
Writing in the journal Nature, Frank Postberg, a planetary scientist who worked on the data at Heidelberg University, and his colleagues describe their analysis of fresh Cassini data that shows that most ice particles blasting out of Enceladus are almost pure water. But a small proportion, about 1%, are rich in organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and potentially nitrogen too. Some were made up of hundreds of atoms. "Our results mark the first ever detection of complex organics coming from an extraterrestrial water world," said Postberg.
...we-may-be-all-alone-in-the-known-universe-a-new-oxford-study-suggests.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
It's amazing to think that on earth it just contains cranberries.
The universe will surprise us with types of life that we never imagined.
Hell, it does that right here on Earth!
Yet we still act about as wise regarding this as the "scientists" in Idiocracy that studied penis enlargement and hair growth.
I hope we find out what caused the average IQ to fall since the 70s"> before it's too late.
https://www.nature.com/article...
This makes this sound almost like we can do a long distance crystallography on these.
Luckily in the article itself it explains that what they mean is the presence of peaks characteristic of aromatic rings and
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
this title is extra-stupid clickbait baloney
sigs are for fags
Sounds like a bold new product from a company known mostly for cranberry drinks and dried sweetened cranberries.
I, for one, welcome our complex molecules of organic constituents for life as we know it, overlords.
It's "the Saturn moon Enceladus" or "the moon Enceladus of Saturn", not "the Saturn moon of Enceladus".
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS – EXCEPT EUROPA.
ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
Off-mike: what do you mean, you landed on the wrong moon? How can you land on the wrong moon? ... The wrong moon circling the wrong freaking planet? ... Do you have any idea how dumb this makes us look? ... What am I supposed to tell the Earthlings? ...
CORRECTION. ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS – EXCEPT ENCELADUS.
ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
Ach, it pisses me off, Slashdot has become so non-technical. And media in general, reflecting the lack of science knowledge, but here I expect better than that.
How come the names of actual types of molecules are not named or described. No, I can't afford to scale the pay-wall.
But such summaries are useless.
".... tell-tale signs of organic molecules far more complex than amino acids and 10 times heavier than methane...t a small proportion, about 1%, are rich in organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and potentially nitrogen too. Some were made up of hundreds of atoms."
But what were the compounds? That way one could decide how close they are to biochemistry.
Damn cranberries are everywhere...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
According to wikipedia some particles far exceed escape velocity. If life exists there then it may have been 'exploring' for a long time if only as spores... good sf story here!
...because Earth only took 6 days. ;)
It happened.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Slashdot is cranberries. C R A N berries.
Subject should have read: This is why I THINK THAT life is abundant in the universe ... but I ran out of space.
In my opinion, it isn't a matter of some random chance that organic molecules formed on Earth and the conditions were just right to create a chain of evolution from that to intelligent (allegedly) life. The way the physics of THIS universe work, it is in its nature to create life, and where conditions are amenable evolution WILL follow. It's chaos theory all the way down.
The entropy of a closed system never decreases.
How old are you ? Twelve ?
The WWF is fake. The moon landings were real.
Get it right next time.
As if Cranberry needed anything to taste any worse.
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
So does the Ocean Spray in my fridge if I leave it there long enough.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.