Saturn's Icy Moon, Enceladus, May Harbor Hydrothermal Activity

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed some startling new findings about Saturn's moon, Enceladus. It's shown that the moon exhibits signs of hydrothermal activity, which may be similar to what is seen in the deep oceans on Earth.

"These findings add to the possibility that Enceladus, which contains a subsurface ocean and displays remarkable geologic activity, could contain environments suitable for living organisms," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in a news release. "The locations in our solar system where extreme environments occur in which life might exist may bring us closer to answering the question: are we alone in the universe."

So what is hydrothermal activity? Hydrothermal activity occurs when seawater infiltrates and reacts with a rocky crust and then emerges as a heated, mineral-laden solution. This occurs at the bottom of Earth's ocean. Saturn's moon, though, may also have the same process.

So how did Cassini detect this activity? It detected microscopic grains of rock in the Saturn system. After analyzing the tiny grains, scientists believe that they most likely form when hot water containing dissolved minerals from the moons rocky interior travels upward, coming into contact with cooler water.

"It's very exciting that we can use these tiny grains of rock, spewed into space by geysers, to tell us about conditions on-and beneath-the ocean floor of an icy moon," said Sean Hsu, lead author of the new study.

The extremely small size of the detected silica particles suggest that they travel upward relatively quickly from their hydrothermal origin to the near-surface sources of the moon's geysers. The grains spend a few months to a few years in transit. If they spent any longer, they would grow larger.

Currently, the scientists hope to study the moon further to learn more about it. The new findings don't just tell researchers about the moon, but also may pave the way for future studies concerning the possibility of life.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

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