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Comprehensive compilation by Huang Yixiao.
According to the German "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", scientists recently discovered the key material for the origin of life in the material ejected into space by Saturn's moon Enceladus, which increased the possibility of life on Enceladus.
Enceladus is a celestial body about 500 kilometers in diameter and its surface is completely covered with ice. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the minimum temperature on the surface of Enceladus can reach -240 and the maximum temperature is -128. The object continues to "spew" into space a huge mixture of ice particles and water vapor, resembling a fountain. Scientists believe that the material ejected by Enceladus came from the ocean inside it. The liquid flows to the surface, and part of the substance is ejected into space. By collecting and detecting these ejecta, it is possible to explore Enceladus' subsurface oceans and look for evidence of life on Enceladus and even Saturn's surface.
The ejectors were collected by NASA's Cassini-Huygens probe. The project is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
Scientists have previously speculated that there are organic compounds on Saturn that are crucial to the origin of life. Inside NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists discovered hydrogen cyanide in the Cassini-Huygens collection. Hydrogen cyanide is a toxic compound thought to play an important role in the origin of life and may be a precursor to the evolution of amino acids, which are the building blocks of life, according to NASA researchers.
The findings were published in the American journal Nature Astronomy. Researchers say that while the discovery has not yet confirmed the existence of life on Enceladus and Saturn, it reinforces the possibility. "We provide further evidence that Enceladus is the host of some of the most important molecules that create the building blocks of life ......Enceladus seems to meet the basic requirements of livability. Jonah Peter, lead author of the study and a PhD student at Harvard University, said the discovery of hydrogen cyanide was "exciting" and that it was the starting point for most theories of the origin of life.
In Enceladus' "fountain", Cassini-Huygens also found carbon dioxide, nitrogen, inorganic phosphorus, ammonia and some complex organic compounds. The collected material was ejected from Enceladus at nearly 1,500 kilometers per hour, and researchers were unable to confirm whether it had been destroyed or altered.
A team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego, USA, recreated the process. They hit the mass spectrometer with ultra-high-velocity ice particles and successfully detected the amino acids entrained in the ice particles after the impact. The head of the study, Robert Continetti, expressed satisfaction with the results. "In order to understand what kind of life might exist in the solar system, you have to know the 'fingerprints' of life and how it exists. "It's possible for Enceladus to blast ice particles to do that." ”
*: China Youth Daily client.