One of Saturn’s many moons, Enceladus, might look like a frozen wasteland, but astronomers are now saying it has all of the building blocks for life. It’s an ocean moon, though all of its surface water is frozen. Still experts say it has many signs it is harboring life.
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00:00 This is Enceladus, one of Saturn's many moons, and while it might look like a frozen
00:08 wasteland, astronomers are now saying it has all of the building blocks for life.
00:12 It's what is often referred to as an ocean moon, though all of its surface water is frozen
00:16 due to its extreme distance from the Sun.
00:18 Still, when the Cassini mission imaged the planet a few years ago, it documented plumes
00:23 of water erupting from the surface, as seen here in these images.
00:26 More of Cassini's data has now been analyzed, finding that there is more than simply liquid
00:30 water under its frozen surface.
00:32 The probe's Cosmic Dust Analyzer noted that those geysers contain carbon dioxide, carbon
00:37 monoxide and trace amounts of molecular nitrogen, simple hydrocarbons and complex organic chemicals.
00:43 Many things we know are needed for life to survive.
00:46 What's more, the relation of carbon to nitrogen to phosphorus seems to align with the Redfield
00:50 Ratio or the ratio of those very elements on Earth, which are a relative constant in
00:54 our planet's oceans, and this sort of supports previous studies that suggested Enceladus
00:59 may be supporting methanogenesis, or life that breathes methane rather than oxygen.
01:04 The researchers say it's still early days with regards to giving the green light about
01:07 life on Saturn's moon.
01:09 However, they add in their study that they recommend broadening the scope of Earth-analog
01:12 environments to include those with extreme resource-supply ratios, mirroring that suggested
01:18 for Enceladus.
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