New analysis by University of Arizona researchers can't quite rule out life on Saturn moon
Despite some recent headlines you may have read, scientists from the University of Arizona did not discover alien life on one of Saturn’s moons.
But they didn’t exactly not discover it, either.
In a new study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers from the UA and Paris Sciences & Lettres University said they couldn’t rule out the possibility of microorganisms on Saturn’s water-spewing moon Enceladus, where hydrothermal vents appear to produce conditions that could support such microbes.
Their findings are based on a new analysis of data collected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in 2015, when it flew through one of the moon’s icy eruptions.
“Obviously, we are not concluding that life exists in Enceladus’ ocean,” said UA associate professor Régis Ferrière, one of the study’s two lead authors. “Rather, we wanted to understand how likely it would be that Enceladus’ hydrothermal vents could be habitable to Earthlike microorganisms. Very likely, the Cassini data tell us, according to our models.”
Read more: https://tucson.com/news/local/new-analysis-by-ua-researchers-cant-quite-rule-out-life-on-saturn-moon/article_91610250-e0e2-11eb-9f12-a78e7f8a0a65.html