00:00 This is Enceladus, one of Saturn's many moons, and while it might look like a frozen
00:08 wasteland, astronomers are now saying it has all of the building blocks for life.
00:12 It's what is often referred to as an ocean moon, though all of its surface water is frozen
00:16 due to its extreme distance from the Sun.
00:18 Still, when the Cassini mission imaged the planet a few years ago, it documented plumes
00:23 of water erupting from the surface, as seen here in these images.
00:26 More of Cassini's data has now been analyzed, finding that there is more than simply liquid
00:30 water under its frozen surface.
00:32 The probe's Cosmic Dust Analyzer noted that those geysers contain carbon dioxide, carbon
00:37 monoxide and trace amounts of molecular nitrogen, simple hydrocarbons and complex organic chemicals.
00:43 Many things we know are needed for life to survive.
00:46 What's more, the relation of carbon to nitrogen to phosphorus seems to align with the Redfield
00:50 Ratio or the ratio of those very elements on Earth, which are a relative constant in
00:54 our planet's oceans, and this sort of supports previous studies that suggested Enceladus
00:59 may be supporting methanogenesis, or life that breathes methane rather than oxygen.
01:04 The researchers say it's still early days with regards to giving the green light about
01:07 life on Saturn's moon.
01:09 However, they add in their study that they recommend broadening the scope of Earth-analog
01:12 environments to include those with extreme resource-supply ratios, mirroring that suggested
01:18 for Enceladus.
01:19 [music]
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