What Can We Learn Flying Through the Plumes at Enceladus?
What Can We Learn Flying Through the Plumes at Enceladus?
In the next decade, space agencies will expand the search for extraterrestrial life beyond Mars, where all of our astrobiology efforts are currently focused. This includes the ESA’s JUpiter ICy moon’s Explorer (JUICE) and NASA’s Europa Clipper, which will fly past Europa and Ganymede repeatedly to s...
NASA's Cassini spacecraft discovered plumes of water ice blasting out of the south pole at Saturn's moon Enceladus. More research showed that these plumes contain water, hydrogen gas, and organic molecules that could help sustain life.
In a new paper, researchers investigate what we could learn from a spacecraft flying through the plumes, "tasting" the material that's hurled into space. Could we detect evidence of life on Enceladus this way ?