Cassini Finds Enceladus Tastes Like a Comet

Yup - that's a weird title! I can't take credit for it, I stole it from this article from the Planetary Society. It's a pretty long and involved article, though (I haven't even read the whole thing!), so you might prefer going to the Bad Astronomy Blog for a nice summary. Here's a brief synopsis: A few years ago the Cassini spacecraft discovered that Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has plumes of water from geysers on its icy surface. That in and of itself is pretty cool. Earlier this month, Cassini flew right through a plume! Not only did they take pictures, but other equipment on board the spacecraft was able to, essentially, taste the particles being spewed out from the interior of Enceladus. Cassini detected organic (carbon-based) molecules in the water. This is pretty cool - the plumes indicate that there is liquid water underneath Enceladus's icy exterior, and organic molecules are the building blocks of life as we know it! Now, we don't know if there is actually any life in Enceladus, but the possibility sure is tantalizing!