Living on an icy moon? Astrobiologist in search of clues to extraterrestrial life
Planetary researcher Nozair Khawaja explores Saturn's moon Enceladus (undated image).
Image: dpa-Bildfunk
The computer-generated image shows how water vapor and ice grains are hurled hundreds of kilometers into space from geysers at the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Enceladus is one of the most promising places in the solar system in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Image: dpa-Bildfunk
"Where there is water, life is also possible," says astrobiologist Nozair Khawaja, who is researching Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Image: dpa-Bildfunk
Planetary researcher Nozair Khawaja explores Saturn's moon Enceladus (undated image).
Image: dpa-Bildfunk
The computer-generated image shows how water vapor and ice grains are hurled hundreds of kilometers into space from geysers at the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Enceladus is one of the most promising places in the solar system in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Image: dpa-Bildfunk
"Where there is water, life is also possible," says astrobiologist Nozair Khawaja, who is researching Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Image: dpa-Bildfunk
A thick ice crust and temperatures as low as minus 200 degrees - doesn't exactly sound pleasant. Why Saturn's moon Enceladus is nevertheless promising in the search for extraterrestrial life.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Hidden beneath the thick icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus is an ocean of liquid water - a possible habitat for microbes.
- Astrobiologist Nozair Khawaja and his team simulate the conditions on Enceladus in the laboratory to discover traces of potential simple life forms.
- The discovery of even the simplest extraterrestrial organisms could raise hopes of further life in the universe - but green men remain science fiction.
At first glance, Saturn's moon Enceladus appears rather unspectacular: it is much smaller than our moon, far away and completely covered in ice. But beneath the frozen shell is an ocean of liquid water - and thus perhaps one of the most promising places in the solar system in the search for extraterrestrial life.
"Where there is water, life is also possible," says astrobiologist Nozair Khawaja, who leads a research team at Freie Universität Berlin (FU). Experiments are soon to show which substances can form under conditions such as those prevailing on Enceladus.
Detection of liquid water was a sensation
Seen from the sun, Saturn is the sixth planet behind Mars and Jupiter. "Scientists used to believe that the region beyond Mars was hopeless for the search for life or conditions for life," explains Khawaja. It was too cold and had too little sunlight.
The detection of liquid water on Enceladus was therefore a minor sensation. The first indication of an underground ocean was in 2005, when several special instruments detected water jets and fountains at the south pole of the moon. Along large cracks, water vapor and ice grains are hurled hundreds of kilometers into space.
In the laboratory, he and his team want to simulate the conditions in the subsurface of the Enceladus Ocean and understand what happens deep below the ice layer. What would it mean if there really is life on Enceladus? Khawaja says: "The discovery of extraterrestrial microbial life would raise hopes that traces of life may be widespread elsewhere in the universe and that conditions may exist there under which human-like life is possible or could be established in the future."
No hope for Enceladus males
The scientist has some disappointing news for science fiction fans: the search is on for simple life forms such as bacteria. The idea of a small green male inhabiting Enceladus has to be abandoned. "We're not looking for something that looks like us and has two eyes, a nose and arms."
