Posted: Feb 28, 2018 1:47 am
Nice article from New Scientist, covering the subject of possible indigenous microbes on Enceladus.
A team from the University of Vienna, took an Earth-based microbe, in the form of a deep sea Japanese Archaean, and tested to see if it could survive in simulated Enceladus conditions. Apparently, it can.
Which means that some interesting conclusions arise from this research even before a mission is planned.
[1] We now know that an organisms with Earth-style biochemistry can survive under simulated Enceladus conditions, and therefore is likely to be capable of surviving on Enceladus itself.
[2] From [1] above, we deduce that NASA will have to exercise special diligence, in order to avoid contaminating Enceladus with Earth microbes, which would of course ruin any experiments aimed at detecting indigenous Enceladus microbes.
[3] If a microbe with Earth-style biochemistry can eke out a living under simulated Enceladus conditions, then any indigenous microbes that are present, possibly with a different, indigenous biochemistry, will almost certainly do better.
Of course, the only way to find out for sure, is to plan a mission, and launch it. A mission that in the light of the latest findings, will require special care to put together.
Which leads to another thorny issue. If indigenous Enceladus microbes are discovered, then finding out about their biochemistry in detail, is going to require a lot of thought. Sending a spacecraft equipped to do this in situ is going to be hideously expensive. On the other hand, bringing some of those microbes back to Earth for study, opens up cans of worms that have already formed the basis of some lurid science fiction movies.
But in the meantime, we're now an interesting step closer to establishing that life on Enceladus is possible.
And, while a future mission is being thought out, we can enjoy the scientific paper from the authors.
A team from the University of Vienna, took an Earth-based microbe, in the form of a deep sea Japanese Archaean, and tested to see if it could survive in simulated Enceladus conditions. Apparently, it can.
Which means that some interesting conclusions arise from this research even before a mission is planned.
[1] We now know that an organisms with Earth-style biochemistry can survive under simulated Enceladus conditions, and therefore is likely to be capable of surviving on Enceladus itself.
[2] From [1] above, we deduce that NASA will have to exercise special diligence, in order to avoid contaminating Enceladus with Earth microbes, which would of course ruin any experiments aimed at detecting indigenous Enceladus microbes.
[3] If a microbe with Earth-style biochemistry can eke out a living under simulated Enceladus conditions, then any indigenous microbes that are present, possibly with a different, indigenous biochemistry, will almost certainly do better.
Of course, the only way to find out for sure, is to plan a mission, and launch it. A mission that in the light of the latest findings, will require special care to put together.
Which leads to another thorny issue. If indigenous Enceladus microbes are discovered, then finding out about their biochemistry in detail, is going to require a lot of thought. Sending a spacecraft equipped to do this in situ is going to be hideously expensive. On the other hand, bringing some of those microbes back to Earth for study, opens up cans of worms that have already formed the basis of some lurid science fiction movies.
But in the meantime, we're now an interesting step closer to establishing that life on Enceladus is possible.
And, while a future mission is being thought out, we can enjoy the scientific paper from the authors.