Salt crystals could hold clues to life beneath Enceladus's ice
The ocean beneath Saturn's moon Enceladus lies under kilometers of ice, but some of its contents do reach the surface. Jets near the south pole spray out water vapor and icy particles, offering a way to investigate the hidden ocean without drilling down to it.
Scientists studying the ocean beneath Saturn's moon Enceladus have discovered that salt crystals could contain valuable clues about the hidden liquid ocean. These crystals, called natron, form on Enceladus and trap tiny pockets of water as they grow during freezing. The findings, published in Communications Earth & Environment, suggest that natron crystals could preserve information about the ocean's chemistry and potentially detect traces of life.
When researchers cooled a solution containing sodium chloride and sodium carbonate, they observed that larger natron crystals were more likely to contain fluid pockets. This makes the crystals promising candidates for studying the ocean's composition. However, the ability of natron to preserve biological material has yet to be tested.
While the new experiment shows that natron can trap fluid during freezing, it remains to be seen whether it can also capture and preserve biological material. The researchers recommend that future spacecraft carry sensitive near-infrared instruments to identify natron on Enceladus' surface and guide sampling. Finding the mineral would be just the first step; its location and condition would also be crucial in determining its usefulness for astrobiological studies.
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