A team of scientists, using archival data from NASA\u2019s now-retired Cassini mission, has discovered the presence of phosphorus in the massive plumes of water being ejected from the southern regions of Saturn\u2019s moon Enceladus. Phosphorus \u2014 a chemical element essential for life and often considered a building block for life \u2014 is locked inside of salt-rich ice grains ejected in these plumes.<\/p>\n
The plumes themselves are thought to be caused by water from a subsurface ocean within Enceladus. The water from the ocean makes its way to space through several fissures in the southern surface regions of Enceladus. The resulting plumes have been studied by several spacecraft \u2014 including Cassini \u2014 and even created a ring around Saturn (known as the E ring).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Orbiting Saturn from 2004 to 2017, Cassini was a mission that set out to discover Saturn and reveal some of its most captivating mysteries. One such mystery was the existence of a subsurface ocean underneath the icy crust of Enceladus, which Cassini found evidence for when it discovered the massive geyser-like plumes at Enceladus\u2019 south pole. Since the discovery of the plumes, scientists have used data from Cassini to determine that, if a subsurface ocean does indeed exist, the ocean would be around 26 to 31 kilometers deep \u2014 significantly deeper than Earth\u2019s 3.7-kilometer-deep oceans.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n