When scientists using NASA's Cassini space probe discovered organic compounds in blocks of ice from Enceladus, they wondered if this meant the Saturnian moon might have the ingredients for life. Six years later, researchers working at research laboratories in Germany recreated conditions analogous to those on that distant frozen world. In the process, they obtained a tantalizing clue on how explorers can determine if Enceladus harbors extraterrestrials.
The scholars drew up new guidelines for understanding biosignatures from life-sustaining elements in future Enceladus missions, publishing their findings in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. They did so by analyzing data from the Cassini mission and using it to create on Earth a simulated version of the hydrothermal fields at the bottom of Enceladus' ocean.
