Enceladus: A Promising Moon for Life

New research suggests that spacecraft could land on Saturn's moon, Enceladus, and collect pristine traces of organic molecules, potentially indicating the presence of life. Previous understanding was that the freshest material from Enceladus' subsurface oceans could only be sampled by flying through plumes of material erupting through fissures in the moon's surface. However, scientists now believe that landing on the moon's surface can provide relatively pristine plume organics sourced from the ocean. The study also found that damaging ultraviolet (UV) photons only penetrate the top 100 micrometers of the icy surface, meaning that deeper grains remain unexposed and can act as a shield for the underlying material.