In a live statement, NASA has announced that there is an excellent chance for life to inhabit Enceladus, the watery moon of Saturn.
Like Europa, a moon of Jupiter, Enceladus is a "water world," covered by oceans of liquid water trapped under a layer of ice.
NASA's Saturn probe Cassini observed a plume of water from a crack in Enceladus's ice. When Cassini sampled the plume, it found it to be 98 percent water, with the remaining 2 percent consisting of elements like liquid hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane – and traces of organics. Those traces are all signs of the presence of life as we know it. Simple Earth organisms eat methane and excrete carbon dioxide.
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