Saturn Moon Enceladus is the world's first extraterrestrial aquatic world with complex organic compounds

Complex organic molecules have been discovered for the first time in the depths of Saturn's moon Enceladus, reports a new study.

The spacecraft planned for the upcoming launch could explore what this new discovery says about the odds of life in the frozen moons like Enceladus, the study's researchers said.

The sixth largest of Saturn's moons, Enceladus is only about 314 miles (505 kilometers) in diameter. This makes the moon small enough to fit within the borders of Arizona. [Photos of Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus]

In 2005, NASA's Cbadini spacecraft detected plumes of water vapor and ice particles coming out of Enceladus, revealing the existence of a giant ocean hidden under the frozen hull of the moon. Because there is life almost everywhere there is water on Earth, these results suggest that life could also exist on Enceladus.

Previously, scientists had detected only simple organic compounds (carbon-based), each of a size less than about five carbon atoms, in Enceladus plumes. Now the researchers have detected complex organic molecules from the moon, some of which had at least 15 carbon atoms.

"It's the very first detection of complex organic compounds from an alien aquatic world," Frank Postberg, a global scientist at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, told Space.com.

Scientists badyzed the data collected by Cbadini when he flew into an Enceladus plume, as well as when the probe pbaded through Saturn's E ring, made up of sputtered grains of ice. ; Enceladus. The researchers detected ice pellets loaded with complex organic matter in both the plume and in the E ring.

The researchers conjectured that these organic materials were cooked inside the hot, rocky and fragmented core of Enceladus, which, according to previous work, had water that seeped in. through its pores.

"The organic materials are then injected, along with warm water, into the cooler underlying ocean by hydrothermal vents," Postberg said. "Then they can be transported up to the surface of the ocean on the walls of rising gas bubbles.

Postberg noted that most of the ice pellets loaded with organic matter that the researchers saw were in Saturn's E ring. This might suggest that these complex organic molecules have not been produced in Enceladus, but rather result from chemical reactions triggered by sunlight in space.

"However, we observe the greater proportion of these complex organic compounds in the inner ring, close to Enceladus, compared to the old outer ring E far away from Enceladus," Postberg said. "In addition, we also see complex organic compounds directly in the plume."

The researchers warned that these new findings are not solid evidence for life, that biological responses are not the only potential sources of complex organic molecules. The next logical step is to return soon to Enceladus "and see if there is extraterrestrial life," Postberg said. "Nowhere else can a potentially habitable alien ocean habitat be as easily probed by a space mission as in the case of Enceladus."

Postberg added that the European Space Agency already has missions, Europa Clipper and JUICE, whose launch is scheduled for 2022 and will target Europa and Ganymede, the frozen moons of Jupiter that have underground oceans. These missions will check the livability of these worlds.

Scientists detailed their findings online June 27 in the journal Nature.

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