'Our Cassini-[Cosmic Dust Analyzer] measurements leave no doubt that substantial quantities of this essential substance are present in the ocean water,' Frank Postberg, a planetary scientist at Freie Universitat Berlin who led the new study, said.
that indicates the detection of phosphorus on Enceladus, in the form of phosphates. Thanks to a new analysis of data from NASA’s Cassini space mission several years ago, a group of researchers have just found phosphates housed in ice particles that had been ejected into space by the moon’s cryovolcanic plumes .
Postberg is the first to say the detection of phosphorus on Enceladus is not entirely surprising, since the element has been found in other parts of the outer solar system and from meteorites originating from that region. But the results are a clear indication that phosphates have been dissolved in Enceladus’ ocean, and “are readily available for the formation of potential life.”
That doesn’t mean the new study is anything close to confirmation that life exists on Enceladus, or even that it truly could. Data from Cassini, a spacecraft that was built decades ago, can only tell us so much. What the new results may do, however, is generate renewed pressure to greenlight a mission to Enceladus. NASA is already forming plans to one day send a probe to Enceladus and
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