Salty Geysers on Saturn’s Moon Sustain Hope of Extraterrestrial Life
By Chris Weiss
Scientists on NASA’s Cassini mission have recently found sodium salts in Saturn’s outermost ring, the E-ring. The E-ring is believed to be fed by huge geysers on Saturn’s moon Enceladus and the presence of salt indicates the possibility of an underground ocean supplying the geysers. Since Enceladus already has two out of three elements necessary for life, the appropriate temperature and proper organic compounds, the idea that there’s water under the surface supports the hope of life.
As stated by Sascha Kempf, one of the scientists working on the analysis: “Finding salt in the plume gives evidence for liquid water below the surface. The lack of detection of sodium vapor in the plume gives hints about what the water reservoir might look like.”
Even if they don’t discover life, they’ve proven one important lesson: searching for aliens is a helluva lot more interesting in movies and games. [via The Register] [Photo: myyorgda]
