Shporer also reported in July 2021 that Saturn’s moon Enceladus is unique in our Solar System — with plumes of water vapor and ice perpetually erupting, shooting jets hundreds of miles into space from its global subsurface ocean through cracks —parallel, evenly spaced “stripes” that are some 130 kilometers long and 35 kilometers apart–on Enceladus’s ice-encased surface providing an intriguing glimpse into what the moon’s subsurface ocean might contain, possibly providing conditions favorable to life. The answer, a new study has found, may lie in the plumes [where is citation?]
A Sign of Life? –Unexplained Levels of Methane
“We wanted to know: Could Earth-like microbes that ‘eat’ the hydrogen (H2) and produce methane (CH4)” explained Régis Ferrière, an associate professor at the University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology about the surprisingly large amount of methane detected by Cassini in a new study that concludes that known geochemical processes on Enceladus, can’t explain the levels of methane measured by the Cassini spacecraft at Enceladus’ South Pole.[where is citation?]
“Searching for such microbes, known as methanogens, at Enceladus’ seafloor would require extremely challenging deep-dive missions that are not in sight for several decades,” observes Ferrière.
Many Solar System Objects Contain Methane
“Abiotic mechanisms of methane formation and release are not only possible but likely, and so life may be involved with methane production on Enceladus, but not necessarily so. The two are not mutually exclusive,” astronomer Jeffrey Kargel at the Planetary Science Institute, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email to The Daily Galaxy. [where is citation?] “Many Solar System objects contain methane. Comets commonly have a small amount, and some, like Hayakutaki, have a considerable quantity. More likely than cometary material in Enceladus is a rocky substance known from meteorites as carbonaceous chondrites, which contain variable small amounts of methane, which can be released by gentle crushing and mild heating, or more vigorous means of releasing these meteorites’ trapped gases. This class of meteorites, or condensed rocky material similar to them, is thought to comprise a major building block accreted by planets and their moons, such as Enceadus.”
“However, indications are that Enceladus has been heated inside to temperatures where any original building blocks have been substantially altered, and the original methane would have been released long ago,” observed Kargel in his email. “So something else is probably producing and releasing it freshly. Hydrothermally altered carbonaceous chondrite-like material would have complex, high-mass, low-solubility hydrocarbons– heavier and less volatile and less soluble molecules than methane. This rocky material and its hydrocarbons then may have been heated, altered, and stored somewhere deep inside Enceladus. Continued heating, happening today, then warms the hydrocarbons enough that they undergo thermal decomposition.
The metamorphosed organics form and emit methane. This may be what Enceladus is releasing today. A byproduct is nearly pure carbon, which can be in the form of graphite (the stuff of pencil lead). Graphite also can undergo methane formation by hydrothermal processes if hydrogen is supplied. We already know that Enceladus is emitting hydrogen in addition to methane, so it seems that the basic ingredients for abiotic methane production are in place. This would be my bet. But more exciting, and also possible, is biological methanogenesis.”
Unknown Process at Work?
An unknown methane-producing process is likely at work in the hidden ocean beneath the icy shell, suggests a new study published in Nature Astronomy by scientists at the University of Arizona and Paris Sciences & Lettres University. [Where is citation?]
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’s 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’s oceans, specifically dihydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide (CO2). The amount of methane found in the plumes was particularly unexpected.
[The author is not providing direct citations to claims, but read on, the article is interesting ....]
But there is a video: https://youtu.be/s6xl9abYL2k
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