Will Alien Life Be First Discovered On Saturn’s Enceladus? In
2011, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered the best evidence yet
for a large-scale saltwater reservoir beneath the icy crust of
Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The data came from the spacecraft’s
direct analysis of salt-rich ice grains close to the jets
ejected from the moon. “This finding is a crucial new piece of
evidence showing that environmental conditions favorable to the
emergence of life can be sustained on icy bodies orbiting gas
giant planets,” according to Nicolas Altobelli, the European
Space Agency’s project scientist for Cassini. Data from
Cassini’s cosmic dust analyzer show the grains expelled from
fissures, known as tiger stripes, are relatively small and
predominantly low in salt far away from the moon. But closer to
the moon’s surface, Cassini found that relatively large grains
rich with sodium and potassium dominate the plumes. The salt-
rich particles have an “ocean-like” composition and indicate
that most, if not all, of the expelled i