Giant plume spotted erupting from moon of Saturn might contain ingredients for life
https://www.science.org/content/article/giant-plume-spotted-erupting-moon-saturn-might-contain-ingredients-life
By Ron Cowen, Science.
Excerpt: NASA’s JWST space telescope has observed a 10,000-kilometer-long plume of water vapor jetting into space from Saturn’s moon Enceladus—the largest spray ever detected from the icy world, which is just one-seventh the diameter of Earth’s Moon. ...Planetary scientists view Enceladus as a prime target in the search for extraterrestrial life because beneath its icy crust the moon houses a salty ocean—a good medium for the ingredients of life to mix. ...Researchers describe the results today in a NASA press release and in a paper accepted at Nature Astronomy. ...NASA’s Cassini mission, which in 2005 discovered the plumes on Enceladus ...flew through them seven times during its 13-year mission, discovering organic molecules such as methane and formaldehyde, and hydrogen, a potential energy source for microbes....