BANGKOK – The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) (Public Organization) disclosed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had announced its discovery of new oceans on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, with plans to search for extraterrestrial life.
NARIT Deputy Director Saran Posayachinda disclosed that on 14 April 2017, NASA announced the discovery of two additional oceans in the solar system according to the data from the Hubble Space Telescope and Cassini spacecraft.
Researchers reported that the water plumes coming from the moon contain molecular hydrogen, a chemical characteristic of hydrothermal activity. On Earth, hydrogen provides fuel for communities of organisms that live around vents on the seafloor. Its presence on Saturn’s moon suggests that Saturn has the right conditions to for microbial life to exist.
Images from the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that plumes much like those on Enceladus are also spewing from Jupiter’s moon Europa and NASA plans to send a probe called the Europa Clipper to examine for signs of life on Jupiter’s moon by flying through those plumes.
The NARIT Deputy Director added that this discovery is another important proof that Earth may not be the only planet in the solar system where life is present.
Discovering traces of water in the oceans of Europa and Enceladus, and an increasingly advanced technology will further stimulate the search for extraterrestrial organisms in the universe.
