<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  In 2005, the Cassini orbiter discovered huge, 125-mile-high geysers spraying from the south pole of Enceladus, a small and icy moon that orbits Saturn. Since then, scientists have speculated where the geysers draw from\u2014and whether that water source might be home to some form of life. The most intriguing idea was that the geysers indicated the presence of a subsurface ocean. Later, the discovery that the plumes contain water vapor, nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide and other chemicals associated with life made the geysers even more exciting. Now, new data has confirmed that Enceladus does indeed have an ocean, and it&amp;#039;s buried beneath 25 miles of ice at the south pole. The ocean appears to be about six miles deep and may be as large or larger than Lake Superior. &amp;quot;These are very exciting findings about one of the most habitable places in the solar system,&amp;quot; says Steven Desch, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University, who was not involved in the new study. Cassini found the ocean while mapping the gravitational field of Enceladus. As the orbiter circled the moon, its flight path dipped or rose depending on the strength of gravity at each location. The gravitational field was weaker around Enceladus&amp;#039; south pole. That was expected: Enceladus&amp;#039; south pole is dented in, and where there&amp;#039;s less mass, there&amp;#039;s less gravity. But the anomaly was a lot smaller than scientists expected, suggesting that something with a lot of mass was compensating for the depression. The most likely solution turned out to be a large mass of liquid water. (Liquid water is more dense than ice\u2014that&amp;#039;s why ice cubes float.) How could a frozen moon harbor a liquid ocean? As Enceladus revolves around Saturn, the planet&amp;#039;s gravity and the gravity of another moon, Dione, pull on Enceladus&amp;#039; core. The resulting distortions generate heat, melting Enceladus&amp;#039; icy shell.  The possible interior or Enceladus. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech On Earth, where there&amp;#039;s water, there&amp;#039;s lie. And the new study suggests that the ocean of Enceladus makes contact with the moon&amp;#039;s rocky silicate core, which means that the water may soak up elements like sulfur and phosphorus that are important for life&amp;#039;s complex chemical reactions. &amp;quot;That silicate provides potentially some of the materials necessary for life,&amp;quot; says Cornell University astronomer Jonathan Lunine, one of the study&amp;#039;s authors. &amp;quot;So it makes, in fact, the interior of Enceladus a very attractive potential place to look for life.&amp;quot; The gravity data cannot determine whether the underground ocean is connected to the surface geysers. But study author David Stevenson, a planetary scientist at CalTech, says that&amp;#039;s the simplest hypothesis. &amp;quot;The best explanation is one where there&amp;#039;s some plumbing system that connects the ocean through cracks to the plumes and the emission at the surface, but that&amp;#039;s just an educated guess.&amp;quot;  Enceladus&amp;#039;s water vapor jets, emitted from the southern polar region. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech and Space Science Institute. The new study adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests Enceladus is a top contender in the search for life outside of Earth, says Ariel Anbar, a biochemist at Arizona State University. Several teams of scientists have suggested sending an orbiter to swoop through Enceladus&amp;#039; plume and take a closer look at its contents and hunt for signs of life. NASA is considering these proposals, but no dedicated mission has been scheduled yet. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a10330/saturn-moon-enceladus-ocean-habitable-16659862/>