On Enceladus, there may be life! Researchers have discovered species that could survive here
A recent study shows that some microorganisms could survive Enceladus.
A certain type of microbe, living at the bottom of the oceans at very high depths, might be able to survive in similar conditions that would exist on Enceladus, one of the natural satellites of Saturn, according to a recent study.In 2005, NASA's Cassini probe detected geysers that erupted on the surface of Enceladus, an ice-covered satellite orbiting Saturn. Since then, the researchers have continued to study the satellite, trying to figure out whether this heavenly body has the potential to host alien life forms.
Researchers at the University of Vienna have created several simulations to build a computerized climate model on Enceladus, modifying the pressure to mimic certain depth thresholds on Earth, but also changing the pH and temperature values.
Then, they introduced into the computerized model three species of methanogenic archaea, microorganisms that feed on carbon dioxide and hydrogen and remove methane as a residual product.
Some methanogenic organisms are extremely terrestrial on Terra - being known for living deep in oceans in hydrothermal wells, surviving at high temperatures and high concentrations of certain chemicals.
One of these organisms, called Methanothermococcus okinawensis, found in the hydrothermal wells of the East China Sea, can survive and even multiply regardless of the extreme conditions tested by the researchers, such as all possible variations in pressure and temperature, the presence or absence of vitamins and exposure to chemicals.
The results of the experiment suggest that similar living conditions could survive in the oceans on Enceladus.
The study, co-ordinated by Simon Rittmann, a professor at the University of Vienna, was published in the journal Nature Communications.