Enceladus shown to have all six of the essential elements for life

Reanalysis of icy stone grains from a ringing of Saturn – fed by crystal plumes from its satellite Enceladus – has revealed the beingness of phosphorus, the lone cardinal indispensable constituent for beingness that hadn’t already been spotted

Space 21 September 2022

By Alex Wilkins

Finding phosphorus means Saturn’s satellite Enceladus has present been shown to person each six of the indispensable elements for life

Cassini Imaging Team/SSI/JPL/ESA/NASA

Saturn’s satellite Enceladus is producing phosphorus, meaning that this icy satellite holds each the indispensable gathering blocks for beingness arsenic we cognize it.

Every beingness signifier connected Earth contains six cardinal elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. The known beingness of these, barroom phosphorus, connected Enceladus, combined with a liquid water and a lukewarm core, had already made the satellite 1 of the most apt places for beingness …