Saturn’s moon Enceladus: Phosphorus discovered

A thick layer of ice gives it its bright, opaque white appearance: Saturn’s moon Enceladus. It reflects almost all of the sunlight that hits its surface.

It is a resting place – except for its south pole. There, geysers erupt from cracks in the frozen surface. It indicates an environment.

To understand the sea beneath the ice, scientists have spent years studying Saturn’s moon Enceladus and its icy jets.

This discovery is of great importance because phosphorus is an important building block for life. He notes that beneath the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus are the building blocks of potentially life-friendly conditions.

The presence of liquid water, and now phosphorus, is of interest to scientists. And fuels the question of the possibility of extraterrestrial life in our solar system.

Further exploration and analysis will provide more insights into the possible existence of life beyond Earth. Enceladus now appears to be at the forefront of these studies.

“We have already found that Enceladus’ ocean is rich in a variety of organic compounds.” So says Frank Postberg, a planetary scientist at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He led the new study in an interview with the journal Nature.

“But this new result now shows a clear chemical signature of large quantities of phosphorus salts (…). It is the first time that this essential element has been discovered in an ocean outside Earth.”