First off-earth phosphates detected in the oceans of one of Saturn's moons

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Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay
Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay

Astronomers have detected phosphates in the ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus, according to international research. It is the first time that phosphorous compounds have been found in an ocean beyond Earth. The team analysed data from the Cassini probe, which collected ice particles ejected into space from Enceladus's oceans, finding evidence of phosphorous in the samples. Modelling based on these results suggests that other icy ocean worlds like Enceladus could also have high phosphate levels. Phosphorous is one of the elements necessary for life as we know it on Earth, and the researchers say the detection of phosphorus improves our previous understanding of icy ocean worlds and sheds new light on the familiar elements that make up their environments.

Media release

From: Springer Nature

Astronomy: Phosphates detected on Saturn’s moon Enceladus (N&V)

The detection of phosphates on Saturn’s moon Enceladus is reported in a paper in Nature. Phosphorus has not previously been detected in oceans beyond those on Earth and this discovery provides a promising step forward in our understanding of ocean worlds.

Enceladus is covered by a global ocean underneath an ice crust. Analysis of ice grains ejected from the moon's subsurface ocean have been analysed here to offer new insights into the elemental composition of this subsurface ocean. Previous models have tentatively suggested the presence of the bio-essential element phosphorus but have been divided on the question of whether Enceladus’ ocean contains substantial quantities of phosphates.

Frank Postberg and colleagues analyse data collected from the Cassini mission’s Cosmic Dust Analyzero determine the major constituents of Enceladus’s oceans. These measurements not only detected phosphorus (in the form of orthophosphate ions) but together with laboratory data suggest that phosphorus might be available at concentrations at least 100 times higher than in Earth’s oceans. Furthermore, modelling based on these results suggests that high phosphate levels could be observed more widely in other icy ocean worlds with similar environmental parameters.

The detection of phosphorus improves our previous understanding of icy ocean worlds and sheds new light on the familiar elements that make up their environments.

Journal/
conference:
Nature
Research:Paper
Organisation/s: Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Funder: F.P., F.K., Z.Z., J.K.H., N.K. and L.N. were supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Consolidator grant no. 724908-Habitat OASIS). Y.S. and T.Shibuya have been supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (grant nos. JP22K21344, JP17H06455 and JP17H06456). R.S. has been supported by the German Aerospace Centre through grant no. 50OH1501. B.A. acknowledges support by the German Science Foundation through grant no. AB 63/25-1. Z.Z. was supported by the Chinese Scholarship Council (grant no. 201604910894). C.R.G. was supported by Southwest Research Institute (grant no. 15-R6248) and by Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life (grant no. 511570FY20).
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