One of Saturn’s moons may have an underground briny ocean that could provide the building blocks for life, according to a study to appear in today’s edition of the journal Nature.
Scientists have determined that sodium salt in icy grains in one of Saturn’s rings was probably blasted into space by geysers on the moon Enceladus, and they speculate the material originates from a body of water beneath the moon’s surface.
Such subsurface water “is very good for the formation of life precursors,” said Frank Postberg, one of the authors of the study. “The whole moon is fascinating. Nobody would have expected such a small moon to have so much going on.”
Enceladus, with a diameter of about 310 miles, is one of Saturn’s 53 officially named moons, according to a NASA website.
In 2005, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft detected that Enceladus was spouting water vapor, dust and ice grains hundreds of miles into space, where the material formed Saturn’s outermost ring. Last year, Cassini flew within 30 miles of the moon’s surface to determine the elements in the emissions.
Cassini’s instruments found that some of the grains in the ring were rich in sodium salts, indicating a liquid water origin.
Enceladus, discovered in 1789, is about 147,500 miles from Saturn. The moon is covered in water ice that makes it reflect almost all of the light that strikes it, NASA said.
