earthstory:Alien Hot Springs One of the biggest discoveries of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was
earthstory: Alien Hot Springs One of the biggest discoveries of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was the presence of geothermal activity in an ocean on one of Saturn’s moons - Enceladus. We’ve known about ice on Enceladus for several decades, but the freezing temperatures on the surface (highs of -198ºC) seemingly made life there extremely unlikely. But, back in 2005 Cassini saw giant plumes of water vapour coming from Enceladus’ south pole, erupting up to 30km from the surface. This observation told us that somewhere in Enceladus there was enough heat to create liquid water - the vital ingredient for life. Gravitational measurements of Enceladus have since revealed that there could be an ocean up to 10km deep underneath the moon’s icy surface - comparable in size to one of Earth’s great lakes. This upgraded Enceladus from a frozen wasteland, to one of the most promising places in our solar system to look for alien life. Keep reading -- source link