A moon orbiting Saturn hosts all the ingredients to sustain life, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The moon is called Enceladus, and is roughly 300 miles in diameter, according to WSJ. Beneath the surface, there is a salty ocean some 30 miles deep, which is continuously erupting through geysers at the moon’s poles. The particles that emerge from the supersonic-speed eruptions fly so high above the moon that spacecraft flying by are able to analyze its components.
It was previously believed that Enceladus had everything needed to host life except for phosphorus. “Life as we know it doesn’t operate without it,” co-author of a recent study on the moon, Christopher Glein, said of the element. “It is absolutely critical to your DNA.” But phosphorus has officially been found on the moon, and now everyone is like “omg let’s move there lol.”
BREAKING 🚨: Scientists have found phosphorous, a key building block of life, in an ocean on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
It’s the first time the element has been found outside of Earth 🤯 pic.twitter.com/XqrYga10z2
— Latest in space (@latestinspace) June 14, 2023
Just kidding. But scientists are trying to figure out how the discovery could lead to the discovery of life in our immediate cosmos.
“The next step is to figure out if indeed it is inhabited, and it is going to take a future mission to answer that question,” NASA Jet Propulsion Lab astrobiologist Morgan Cable said of the discovery. “But this is exciting, because it makes Enceladus an even more compelling destination to go and do that kind of search.” (RELATED: ‘Something Weird’ Is Happening In Space And Scientists Are Stumped)
Personally, I’m not here for it. We don’t even know how our own moon works, so how are we suddenly supposed to know that the random space rock is any good?