Saturn energy 'could be signs of life'

For five years, scientists had been baffled by the energy exuded by Saturn's tiny ice moon Enceladus. Although small moons are often dormant, Enceladus was exploding with activity, but the cause remained a mystery. "Pretty much everyone thought it was barren, that it was another cold dead little rock, but this 500km-across ball of ice is actually one of the more active bodies in the solar system," Macquarie University scientist Craig O'Neill told The Australian.

Through computer simulations, Dr O'Neill and his US colleague Francis Nimmo were able to show why Enceladus has been emitting "extraordinary energy". Dr O'Neill said Enceladus could potentially have the right conditions to support life. The results of the co-authored study, to be published online in the Nature Geoscience journal today, proved that billions of years of pent-up energy led to an episode of activity on Enceladus.

The activity led to the tiny moon, one of more than 20 orbiting Saturn, emitting unusually high temperatures and being "extremely active" with pulses of crashing ice plates and ice volcanoes. Dr O'Neill said he expected the activity to last for about 10 million years. "The activity could be enough that it will melt the interior and possibly sustain a molten water ocean underneath, which in turn could support micro-organisms," he said.

_{© DaileyTelegraph.com.au} | Gewijzigd: 11 januari 2010, 02:06 uur, door MarkNL