Saturn's Moon Enceladus Has Underground Ocean 51
astroengine (1577233) writes "Gravity measurements made with the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft indicate the small moon Enceladus has an ocean sandwiched between its rocky core and icy shell, a finding that raises the prospects of a niche for life beyond Earth. The Cassini data shows the body of water, which is in the moon's southern hemisphere, must be as large or larger than Lake Superior and sitting on top of the moon's rocky core at a depth of about 31 miles. 'The ocean may extend halfway or more toward the equator in every direction,' said planetary scientist David Stevenson, with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena."
Re:In a perfect world (Score:3, Informative)
In my perfect world, everybody would care and I'd have seen this in the morning news.
It's yesterday's news, so it would be stale by this morning. Or do you read dead trees?
BBC had it on the front page last night.
Re:Life? I doubt it. (Score:4, Informative)
If I was to lay money on it I'd say that water was about as sterile as you can get.
In earths underwater volcanic vents the environment is highly toxic with a high concentration of sulphur . The temperatures go up to 500 deg C .Life still flourishes . It is not carbon based life as we know , it is sulphur based life , deriving its energy from the vents. I'm not saying that means life will exist on europa or other similar moons but it's a demonstration of how simple life can exist in the most unforgiving conditions
Re:Life? I doubt it. (Score:2, Informative)
It is not carbon based life as we know , it is sulphur based life ,
It is still carbon based life as in they are still predominately made of carbon and made of the same building blocks as the rest of life on Earth. Their source of energy though is from a chemical process using the sulphur from vents, as opposed to the seemingly much more common use of photosynthesis and eating things with sugar, protein and fats.