Does Enceladus, the icy moon of the planet Saturn harbor life? Researchers at the University of Illinois are trying to zero-in to the possibilities by developing a new model cuing from the Cassini spacecraft orbiting the planet.
The spacecraft has spotted Enceladus‘ South Polar Region with not just fractures and ridges, but also elaborate arrangements of intense heat radiation and geyser-like plumes, erupting from vents located in large fractures - ‘tiger stripes’ - and cutting across the pole. The plumes are found to consist of ice crystals and gases - like methane, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
One of what rejects all possibilities of life in the icy-moon are the plumes’ having a discharge rate similar to the ‘Old Faithful geyser‘ in the Yellowstone National Park. Thus, it has been dubbed as ‘Cold Faithful’ — an alternate model designed last year was named ‘Frigid Faithful.’
Holding a Charles R. Walgreen Jr. Chair at Illinois Kieffer, said
Perhaps more important, the plumes of Frigid Faithful could remain active far below the freezing point of water, under the frigid conditions that might be surmised inside a tiny, icy moon.
With the Enceladus unlikely to possess liquid water, it goes without much effort to conclude, that life in the moon is also unlikely.
After the Cassini has measured the surface temperature’s possibility of being as many as 150 degrees below the freezing point of water.
