New study claims underground oceans on Enceladus could be teeming with microbes

Enceladus, Saturn's sixth largest moon, may have an underground ocean teeming with life.

This is according to a new study that has found the water spewing from its surface could be suitable for microbes to thrive, reports the Daily Mail.

The water has a pH of 11 or 12 and also contains the same sodium chloride salt as oceans here on Earth, the researchers claim.

Enceladus is geologically active and thought to have a liquid water ocean beneath its icy surface.

The hidden ocean is the presumed source of the plume of water vapor and ice that the Cassini spacecraft has observed venting from the moon's south polar region.

The study developed a new chemical model based on data of ice grains taken by Cassini.

They found that the plume, and by association the ocean, is salty with an alkaline pH of about 11 or 12, which is similar to that of glass-cleaning solutions of ammonia.

Its additional substantial sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) makes the ocean more similar to our planet's soda lakes such as Mono Lake in California or Lake Magadi in Kenya.

“Knowledge of the pH improves our understanding of geochemical processes in Enceladus' soda ocean,” Carnegie's Mellon University's Christopher Glein explained.

The model suggests that the ocean's high pH is caused by a metamorphic, underwater geochemical process called serpentinisation.

On Earth, serpentinisation occurs when certain kinds of so-called 'ultrabasic' or 'ultramafic' rocks are brought up to the ocean floor from the upper mantle and chemically interact with the surrounding water molecules.

Through this process, the ultrabasic rocks are converted into new minerals, including the mineral
serpentine, after which the process is named, and the fluid becomes alkaline.

On Enceladus, serpentinisation would occur when ocean water circulates through a rocky core at the bottom of its ocean.

"The reaction between the metallic rocks and the ocean water also produces molecular hydrogen (H2), which provides a source of chemical energy that is essential for supporting a deep biosphere in the absence of sunlight inside moons and planets," said Glein.

“This process is central to the emerging science of astrobiology, because molecular hydrogen can both drive the formation of organic compounds like amino acids that may lead to the origin of life, and serve as food for microbial life such as methane-producing organisms.

“As such, serpentinisation provides a link between geological processes and biological processes.

“The discovery of serpentinisation makes Enceladus an even more promising candidate for a separate genesis of life.”

Last month, a separate study found that jets of water on Saturn's moon Enceladus are actually folds in much larger 'curtains' of water erupting from the surface.

The study suggested that there are more widespread ejections than thought taking place on the moon.

The research was conducted by scientists in Arizona using data from Nasa's Cassini mission.
Images taken by the probe revealed jets on Saturn's moon, which are thought to be water from a subsurface ocean.