Major discovery! Could the plume fountains on Enceladus contain new evidence of extraterrestrial life?

A planetary science study published in Nature Astronomy on the 14th pointed out that a reanalysis of data from the Cassini mission showed that the gas plumes released by Saturn's satellite Enceladus contain molecules such as methanol, ethane and oxygen.

The Cassini spacecraft first discovered large plumes of material escaping into space from Enceladus' southern hemisphere in 2005. The plumes appear to be coming from a subsurface ocean beneath cracks in the moon's icy surface. Analysis of Cassini's Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) data collected during two flybys in 2011 and 2012 confirmed the presence of water, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, and molecular hydrogen in the samples.

This time, the Harvard University research team re-examined the data processed by the INMS equipment team and compared it with a large known mass spectrum library. Using statistical analysis techniques to analyze billions of possible components of the plume material, they found that the most likely composition was 5 already identified molecules and newly identified hydrocarbons hydrogen cyanide, acetylene, propylene and ethane, as well as alcohols (methanol) and molecular oxygen.

The team believes that this diverse "chemical warehouse" beneath the surface of Enceladus may be suitable for a habitable environment or support microbial communities. However, the researchers emphasized that the ability of these compounds to support life on Enceladus depends largely on how diluted they are in the subsurface ocean.