An ocean hides beneath the icy crust of , and cracks at the south pole fire material from it straight into space. Cassini passed through and collected ice grains. What was in them?
Phosphorus, in quantity. The grains are rich in salt, and a new analysis of the spectrum identified in them. Laboratory experiments and suggested the phosphorus concentration in the water feeding the jet is at least a hundred times higher than in our own oceans. Phosphorus is essential to life, and it is no proof of life.
An ocean hides beneath the icy crust of a small moon of Saturn, and cracks at the south pole fire material from it into space. Instead of drilling through kilometers of ice, you can fly through the jet.
Cassini passed through and measured ice grains rich in salt, and a new analysis of the spectrum identified sodium phosphates in them.
Phosphorus sits in the backbone of DNA, in cell membranes and in the energy currency of the cell, and it is scarce in water, so its absence counts as a bottleneck for life. The finding is not the presence of a salt but the quantity.
Laboratory experiments and models suggested the phosphorus concentration in the water feeding the jet is at least a hundred times higher than in our oceans. Phosphorus is essential to life and is no proof of life. The estimate refers to the water feeding the jet, and whether the ocean is uniform, or whether any biology goes on in it, is unknown.
wat. The ice grains of Enceladus carried phosphate from the ocean hidden beneath the crust.
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One of the elements essential and scarce for life is apparently available in an ocean beyond Earth.
How do we know?
Mass spectra from Cassini’s ice grains were compared with laboratory experiments and with chemical models of the ocean.
What is still unknown
The estimate refers to the water feeding the jet; whether the ocean is uniform, or whether any biology goes on in it, is unknown.
Learn something?
Where to next
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