Skip to main content

Could there be microbial life in the ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus?

An artist's impression depicts NASA's Cassini spacecraft flying through a plume of presumed water erupting from the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
This artist’s impression depicts NASA’s Cassini spacecraft flying through a plume of presumed water erupting from the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. NASA

When it comes to searching for potentially habitable places in our solar system, one of the top targets is Saturn’s moon Enceladus. From a distance, the moon appears to be slick and shiny, covered in a thick layer of ice. But scientists believe there is an ocean beneath this ice crust that could potentially be capable of supporting life.

One of Enceladus’s most intriguing features is the huge plumes of water that periodically erupt from its surface. They give evidence about what the ocean beneath the ice may be like, and by flying through these plumes and taking samples, the Cassini spacecraft was able to determine that the plumes had concentrations of dihydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide. These chemicals are also found in the hydrothermal vents on Earth’s ocean floor — and as these vents are known to host life, scientists have wondered if Enceladus’s ocean might be able to as well.

Recommended Videos

“We wanted to know: Could Earthlike microbes that ‘eat’ the dihydrogen and produce methane explain the surprisingly large amount of methane detected by Cassini?” said lead author of the study, Régis Ferrière, associate professor in the University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “Searching for such microbes, known as methanogens, at Enceladus’ seafloor would require extremely challenging deep-dive missions that are not in sight for several decades.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

As the researchers couldn’t send a mission there themselves, instead they used mathematical modeling to determine whether the conditions observed on Enceladus could be consistent with the presence of microbial life. They found that the data collected by Cassini could be explained by microbial vent activity similar to that on Earth’s ocean floor. Or it could be explained by a different process that doesn’t involve life — but it would have to be different from anything here on Earth.

So that doesn’t mean there is life on Enceladus, but it means that there could be. The current data shows a definite possibility that the ocean is habitable.

“Obviously, we are not concluding that life exists in Enceladus’ ocean,” Ferrière said. “Rather, we wanted to understand how likely it would be that Enceladus’ hydrothermal vents could be habitable to Earthlike microorganisms. Very likely, the Cassini data tell us, according to our models.”

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
The moon looks majestic in ISS astronaut’s stunning photo
The moon as seen from the space station.

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick has shared a stunning image that he took recently aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The photograph shows a large-looking moon dominating the scene, which also includes clouds a couple of hundred miles below.

Read more
NASA agreement with oil company BP could see its technology used on moon
An artist’s concept of an Artemis astronaut deploying an instrument on the lunar surface.

While its technology is most often used to drill for oil here on Earth, oil company BP has entered into an agreement with NASA that could see its technology used to drill for resources on the moon.

The agreement was announced this week, and says the company will work with NASA to "support common goals in space exploration and energy production." That involved sharing technology and technical expertise, particularly about how energy production can operate in extreme environments. This could be applicable to future NASA plans for exploration of the moon and Mars, both of which will require significant power generation.

Read more
NASA’s axed moon rover could be resurrected by Intuitive Machines
An illustration of NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) on the lunar surface.

Lunar scientists were shocked and dismayed last month when NASA announced that it was canceling work on its moon rover, VIPER. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover was intended to search the moon's south pole for evidence of water there, but NASA said that it had to ax the project due to increasing costs.

This week, an open letter to Congress called the cancellation of the mission "unprecedented and indefensible," and questioned NASA's assertion that the cancellation of the mission would not affect plans to send humans to the moon. Scientists argued that the mission was fundamental to understanding the presence of water on the moon, which is a key resource for human exploration, as well as an issue of scientific interest.

Read more