Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
Now certified Organic.
I don't trust atoms -- they make up stuff.
If you want to get pedantic, it's "Saturn's moon Enceladus", "Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons", or "Enceladus, a moon of Saturn".
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
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!
It happened.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
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.
And here I was busy madly quibbling over the absurdity that a water fountain is considered "ocean spray." I mean, unless the tidal forces bounced it off a rock into the air, it isn't ocean spray.
But I do like cranberries, or really any species of Vaccinium.