Chinese scientists discovered: Enceladus may have "phosphorus for life"!

Enceladus is one of the most likely extraterrestrial planets in the solar system to host life. Recently, researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China, including Hao Jihua, found that the subglacial ocean of Enceladus may contain abundant dissolved phosphates , which can support the origin and reproduction of potential microorganisms. This discovery fills the gap in the study of the habitability of Enceladus' seawater and provides a scientific reference for future human exploration of possible life on Enceladus.

Enceladus is the second satellite of Saturn discovered by humans. One of its main features is that its surface is covered with a thick ice shell, so it is also called the "ice satellite". Since the 1980s, the international scientific community has discovered through space probes that Enceladus hides an ocean under the ice. Analysis of ice particles ejected from its ice cracks has found that it contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur, the six basic elements of life , but phosphorus has not yet been found .

Phosphorus is indispensable to the DNA, biomembranes, bones, etc. that make up living organisms. Therefore, the international scientific community once believed that Enceladus might not be suitable for life.

Recently, an international scientific research team led by Hao Jihua innovatively constructed a seawater-rock interaction model to simulate the seawater chemical environment of Enceladus.

Schematic diagram of the structure of Enceladus (provided by the interviewee)

"Phosphorus can only be used by organisms when it is dissolved in water. Compared with the seawater on Earth, the seawater on Enceladus has a high alkaline content and no oxygen, and its composition is a bit like 'soda water'." Hao Jihua said that they found that in this "soda water" environment, the phosphorus-containing rocks in the core of Enceladus would only take about 100,000 years to dissolve a lot of phosphorus into the seawater, and the ocean of Enceladus has existed for more than 100 million years, so it is inferred that it is rich in phosphorus.

The results were recently published in the international academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "This study reveals the potential for life habitability on Enceladus from a very novel perspective." Reviewers believe that their method can also be applied to studying the elemental composition of the oceans of other planets and the origin of early life on Earth.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

Reporter: Xu Haitao, Dai Wei