PARIS: Humanity may need look no further than our own Solar System in the search for alien life, researchers probing one of Saturn’s moons said on Tuesday. The icy orb known as Enceladus may boast ideal living conditions for single-celled microorganisms known as archaeans found in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, they reported in the science journal Nature Communications.
A methanogenic (methane-producing) archaean called Methanothermococcus okinawensis thrived in laboratory conditions mimicking those thought to exist on Saturn’s satellite, the team said.
On Earth, this type of archaean is found at very hot temperatures near deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and converts carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas into methane.
Traces of methane were previously detected in vapour emanating from cracks in Enceladus’ surface.
“We conclude that some of the CH4 (methane) detected in the plume of Enceladus might, in principle, be produced by methanogens,” the researchers in Germany and Austria wrote.
They also calculated that sufficient hydrogen to support such microbes could be produced by geochemical processes in Enceladus’ rocky core.
The authors had set out to test the hypothesis that conditions on the satellite may be good for hosting methanogenic archaea.
The data, based purely on laboratory study, showed this “could be” so, said Simon Rittmann of the University of Vienna who co-authored the scientific paper. — Afp
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