NASA Finds Material that Could Support Possible Life on Saturn’s Moon

2023 · VOA Learning English

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1. NASA has discovered new evidence that Saturn’s moon Enceladus holds material that is important to the early development of life.

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2. The American space agency said the new evidence came from observations made by its Cassini spacecraft.

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3. Cassini spent seven years observing seasonal changes around Saturn. During that time, the spacecraft also collected data on Saturn’s moons.

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4. Two of Cassini’s discoveries involved Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus.

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5. In its observations of Titan, the spacecraft studied the moon’s climate activity and recorded data on rivers, lakes and oceans.

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6. Cassini also found evidence of several Earth-like qualities of Titan that could support life.

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7. Another Cassini discovery involved the observation of hydrogen molecules in ice particles and vapor shooting upward from the moon’s surface.

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8. Researchers announced that finding in 2017, the same year Cassini officially ended its mission

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9. In announcing that discovery, NASA scientists said the presence of hydrogen molecules could signal deep-sea chemical reactions between water and rock that could create

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10. microbial life. Now, the space agency is sharing a new finding that supports the earlier discoveries.

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11. Scientists examining Cassini data said they identified “strong confirmation” of the presence of another molecule seen as important for enabling life.

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12. Evidence of the molecule hydrogen cyanide was found in data relating to the same shooting flows of ice and water vapor observed by Cassini on Enceladus.

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13. The team used data collected by an instrument aboard Cassini designed to measure the activity of gas, ions and ice particles around Saturn.

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14. The discovery process involved a lot of mathematics aiming to understand the newly examined data.

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15. The new evidence is described in a study in Nature Astronomy by scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.

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16. The lead writer of the study, Jonah Peter, is currently a doctoral student at Harvard University.

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17. He called the discovery of hydrogen cyanide “particularly exciting,” saying the molecule is “the starting point for most theories on the origin of life.”

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18. NASA said in a statement that for life to exist in space, there must be collections of the right building blocks. One of the most important of these is amino acids.

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19. “Hydrogen cyanide is one of the most important and versatile molecules needed to form amino acids,” NASA noted.

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20. The researchers said hydrogen cyanide molecules can join together in many different combinations.

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21. They can also serve as a precursor for different kinds of amino acids.

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22. In addition, the latest examination of Cassini data suggested the underground ocean on Enceladus “holds a powerful source of chemical energy.”

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23. “Unidentified until now, the energy source is in the form of several organic compounds, some of which, on Earth, serve as fuel for organisms,” NASA

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24. said. Astronomers involved in the research said that the discovery provides fresh evidence that there may be more chemical energy inside Enceladus than previously thought.

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25. The more energy that is available, the team said, the more likely it is that life can form and survive.

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26. “Not only does Enceladus seem to meet the basic requirements for habitability said JPL’s Jonah Peter, “we now have an idea about how complex biomolecules could

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27. form there, and what sort of chemical pathways might be involved.”

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28. The search for possible life on Titan will continue when NASA launches its Dragonfly exploratory mission in 2026.

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29. Dragonfly is a drone, or pilotless aircraft. The vehicle is designed to capture images and also land on Titan to collect data.

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30. Tom Nordheim is a planetary scientist at JPL who helped lead the research.

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31. He noted that although NASA purposely sent the spacecraft crashing into Saturn’s atmosphere to end its service, Cassini is still proving to be a valuable research tool.

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32. “Our study demonstrates that while Cassini’s mission has ended, its observations continue to provide us with new insights about Saturn and its moons...” Nordheim said.

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