Life on Saturn Moon, a possibility

Enceladus, a moon of Saturn has joined an elite group of places in our solar system where scientists are hoping to find life, although the moon is only 300 miles wide.

The cassini spacecraft has spotted what appear to be water gysers on Enceladus, raising the possibility of life.

The surprising images from the moon Enceladus represent some of the most dramatic evidence yet that water in liquid form may be present beyond Earth.

Excited by the discovery, some scientists said Enceladus should be added to the short list of places within the solar system most likely to have extraterrestrial life.

"It’s startling," said Carolyn C. Porco of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., leader of the imaging team for Cassini. Nine scientific papers about Enceladus (pronounced en-SELL-ah-dus), appear in today’s issue of Science. "I wouldn’t be surprised to see the planetary community clamoring for a future exploratory expedition to land on the south polar terrain of Enceladus," said Dr. Porco, lead author of one of the papers.

Torrence Johnson, a Cassini scientist from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said this marks the first time that scientists have seen evidence of water so close to the surface on another body beyond Earth.

If Enceladus does harbour life, it probably consists of microbes or other primitive organisms capable of living in extreme conditions, scientists say.

The findings were published in today’s issue of the journal Science.

"We previously knew of at most three places where active volcanism exists: Jupiter’s moon Io, Earth, and possibly Neptune’s moon Triton. Cassini changed all that, making Enceladus the latest member of this very exclusive club, and one of the most exciting places in the solar system," said John Spencer, Cassini scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder.

"Other moons in the solar system have liquid-water oceans covered by kilometers of icy crust," said Andrew Ingersoll, imaging team member and atmospheric scientist at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "What’s different here is that pockets of liquid water may be no more than tens of meters below the surface."