No signs of life? Amino Acids Found on Saturn Satellite

According to a recent study, organic compounds essential to life, including nitrogen and oxygen, were discovered in ice grains released from Saturn’s moon, Enceladus.

There are several satellites around the giant gas planets Saturn and Jupiter. There are moons that are no different from small planets, and one of them is Enceladus, Saturn’s moon. It is covered with thick ice, and below the crust there may be a sea of groundwater that is quite deep.

Interest is drawn to the fact that a new organic compound was discovered in Enceladus. Water, energy, and compounds are essential items that create life. Enceladus is covered in a crust of ice and looks like an ice ball, but there is a crack in the Antarctic region, and the inner material is said to be erupting in the mantle upstream. In addition, a mixture of dark nuclei or submarine material is discharged into outer space along the eruption by this upward current. Water vapor rises to space.

In 2004 and 2008, the Saturn rover Cassini investigated this and collected data on the composition of water vapor in two ways: INMS and CDA. According to a monthly report of the Royal Astronomical Society, this time, a research team in the United States and Doyle looked at CDA data and discovered an organic compound called amine.

Amine is an organic compound containing nitrogen and oxygen, and is a molecule similar to the so-called amino acid. Organic means a substance containing carbon, but the complex molecules that make up life on Earth are made of organic compounds. In other words, having organic compounds like amines means that there are parts that make up life. In fact, scientists believe that similar phenomena may occur in the deep seas of ice such as Enceladus and Jupiter Europa, just as they live by using the heat of ocean volcanoes even in the deep parts of the earth where sunlight does not reach.

Although the Cassini data still knew the existence of organic compounds, the compounds found in this study are of interest to those seeking extraterrestrial life. Cassini has completed a mission in Saturn’s atmosphere, but the data obtained through it presents new challenges for scientists. Of course, no life has been found in this data yet. In any case, it is clear that such an attempt raises the possibility that a possible encounter with an alien creature will become reality. Related information can be found here .