NASA could look for ALIEN LIFE on Saturn’s moon without even putting a foot on it

Are there aliens out there? The question of whether we are alone in this world has pushed the scientific community to devoting ever greater resources on the answer. We have searched in far away galaxies looking for planets which are similar to Earth in composition and are placed in similar orbits in their solar system. However, NASA now believes that the answer to this question might be much closer to home than previously thought. Enceladus, one of the 83 moons of Saturn is believed to host alien life within itself and very soon the American space agency will launch its mission to explore its possibility. But interestingly, if we believe this new research, NASA might not even have to set foot on Saturn’s moon to investigate whether it harbors life. Read on to know more.

NASA to look for alien life on Enceladus

Enceladus is placed around 800 million miles away from the Earth and it revolves around Saturn along with 82 other moons. The celestial body is 25 times smaller than our planet and yet somehow, it appears that it has all the right conditions to sustain life. And the biggest reason for this belief is the presence of water. NASA has observed the Saturn moon shooting geyser-like plumes into space. The plumes contain both water and gas and it is a strong belief that the water comes from its oceans.

And NASA has been aiming at exploring Enceladus for years. The issue has largely been the complicated nature of it and the finances. The early proposals involved studying the moon from both the ground level as well as from the orbit to create a comprehensive image of whether microbial life exists there or not which could take till 2050s just to be set into motion. However, a new study published in The Planetary Science Journal suggests an innovative method that would skip around landing on the Saturn moon.

“Our research shows that if a biosphere is present in Enceladus’ ocean, signs of its existence could be picked up in plume material without the need to land or drill. but such a mission would require an orbiter to fly through the plume multiple times to collect lots of oceanic material,” Antonin Affholder, the lead author, in a statement.

So, to make the process even easier, the research team has flipped the question on its head. Instead of finding a necessary amount of organic matter to prove that life exists on Enceladus, they suggest finding the maximum amount of organic matter that can exist without the presence of life.

Doing this would be easier since the Cassini spacecraft has revealed that the geyser on the Saturn moon that spews water, also releases methane, a gas that usually comes from bacteria and other microorganisms on Earth.