NASA Research Suggests Possible Life on Saturn’s Moon
NASA has found large amounts of methane wafting within plumes from Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, Enceladus, suggesting that life may exist within its “subsurface sea.” This evidence was discovered thanks to the Cassini spacecraft, which also discovered dihydrogen and carbon dioxide molecules there. Scientists believe the methane is produced biologically, rather than through a geochemical process. Thus, Régis Ferrière, an associate professor at the University of Arizona’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, wonders: “Could Earth-like microbes that ‘eat’ the dihydrogen and produce methane explain the surprisingly large amount of methane detected by Cassini?” Read more about the evidence at Space.
Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
Via space.com link opens in a new window
