{"id":124641,"date":"2021-07-06T17:22:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T00:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/methane-in-the-plumes-of-saturns-moon-enceladus-possible-signs-of-life"},"modified":"2021-07-06T17:22:17","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T00:22:17","slug":"methane-in-the-plumes-of-saturns-moon-enceladus-possible-signs-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/methane-in-the-plumes-of-saturns-moon-enceladus-possible-signs-of-life","title":{"rendered":"Methane in the Plumes of Saturn\u2019s Moon Enceladus: Possible Signs of Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/methane-in-the-plumes-of-saturns-moon-enceladus-possible-signs-of-life.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>An unknown methane-producing process is likely at work in the hidden ocean beneath the icy shell of Saturn\u2019s moon Enceladus, suggests a <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41550-021-01372-6\">new study<\/a> published in Nature Astronomy by scientists at the University of Arizona and Paris Sciences &amp; Lettres University.<\/p>\n<p>Giant water plumes erupting from Enceladus have long fascinated scientists and the public alike, inspiring research and speculation about the vast ocean that is believed to be sandwiched between the moon\u2019s rocky core and its icy shell. Flying through the plumes and sampling their chemical makeup, the Cassini spacecraft detected a relatively high concentration of certain molecules associated with hydrothermal vents on the bottom of Earth\u2019s oceans, specifically dihydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide. The amount of methane found in the plumes was particularly unexpected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wanted to know: Could Earthlike microbes that \u2018eat\u2019 the dihydrogen and produce methane explain the surprisingly large amount of methane detected by Cassini?\u201d said <strong>R\u00e9gis Ferri\u00e8re<\/strong>, an associate professor in the University of Arizona <a href=\"https:\/\/eeb.arizona.edu\/\">Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology<\/a> and one of the study\u2019s two lead authors. \u201cSearching for such microbes, known as methanogens, at Enceladus\u2019 seafloor would require extremely challenging deep-dive missions that are not in sight for several decades.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An unknown methane-producing process is likely at work in the hidden ocean beneath the icy shell of Saturn\u2019s moon Enceladus, suggests a new study published in Nature Astronomy by scientists at the University of Arizona and Paris Sciences &amp; Lettres University. Giant water plumes erupting from Enceladus have long fascinated scientists and the public alike, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":625,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19,1506,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological","category-chemistry","category-food","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/625"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}