We now know the place most likely to find aliens

Life – at least as we know it – has not been found anywhere else in space except for the Earth. Enceladus could change that.

The frozen moon of Saturn already has vast oceans below the surface and a source of energy that could provide heat for all hypothetical creatures that could swim. A recent study published in the journal Nature has just discovered that there is a third ingredient for life on Enceladus that might not prove that aquatic aliens exist, but at least the possibility that we are not alone in this universe

Cassini (RIP) left behind data that have now been used by an international team of scientists to determine that there are complex organic molecules floating on Enceladus. Organic molecules contain carbon and are mandatory for life forms on our planet to survive, so finding them on Enceladus now makes it the most likely place beyond our planet for exotic species to thrive. This does not necessarily mean that the fish of space swarm under the ice crust.

"The underground ocean of Enceladus is a livable place. "Scientists believe that these compounds are ejected through fissures in the crust of the moon by a cryo-volcano that spits out vaporous plumes full of tiny," says Frank Postberg, global scientist and team leader. In some of these grains of ice, organic molecules have been found. Spaceships do not need to dive deep to find organic traces on Enceladus because they can collect data for scientists to study them more by flying over these particles. "The hydrothermal activity is supposed to occur deep within the porous core," said Postberg and his team in the study. Think of the hydrothermal vents that spring from the warm water in the dark depths of the Earth's oceans (and teem with Scientists also believe that there are similar vents on the ocean floor of Saturn's moon that expel the organic compounds that come from its nucleus.

While more organic compounds simple like methane The molecules with one or two carbon atoms and a few atoms of hydrogen are nothing compared to these newly discovered molecules that consist of rings and chains of carbon, hydrogen , oxygen and nitrogen, you know, a bit like the substances found on Earth.No wonder the researchers hastened to send a space probe there already.

Well that If the question of the aliens has remained unanswered, you never know whether the next discovery will be not only a molecule, but a microbe. via NBC Mach)