On September 15, 2017, the Cassini probe, which had been working in the orbit of Saturn for 13 years, resolutely crashed into the atmosphere of Saturn while there was surplus fuel.
The purpose of this is mainly to protect Saturn's satellite - Enceladus . He is afraid that Cassini will lose control after the fuel is exhausted and crashed on Enceladus. The microorganisms carried by Cassini from the earth may pollute this planet that may have borne life.
Enzo in a desolate area
For a long time, in the solar system,Enzo is considered to be the planet that is most likely to be born in life besides the earth, and it is also the most likely that humans will discover the second planet that has born in life in the universe.
Strictly speaking, Enceladus is located in the solar system, desolate and remote, and is not in the livable zone. It is 9.5 astronomical unit from the sun, about 1.4 billion kilometers. Because it is too far away from the sun, the energy it can receive is quite small, so its annual surface temperature is -198℃.
And there is no magnetic field on Enceladus, which makes it easy for cosmic rays to radiate directly to its surface. If the conditions for the birth of life on Earth are used to apply Enceladus, then Enceladus will not be able to produce life at all.
However, with the development of human science and the advancement of exploration methods, many extreme environments were found on the earth. In places where life was originally thought impossible, many biological activities were seen.
So far, scientists have further relaxed the conditions for the birth of extraterrestrial life . Even so, based on the exploration of other planets in the solar system over the years, it is still believed that Enceladus is the planet that is most likely to give birth to life.
Why is Enceladus the most likely to give birth to life?
Enzo Although the position from the sun is relatively remote compared to the earth, it causes it to receive less energy from the sun and its surface temperature is lower.
However, from the photos taken back by the Cassini probe, it can be seen that Enceladus is an extremely active planet with abundant water resources. Although its radius is only 252 kilometers, the depth covered by the ocean is 107 kilometers, which is about 10 times the deepest part of the Earth's ocean. It is a veritable ocean planet.
During the observation period, it was also found that ice volcano eruptions frequently occurred on Enceladus, indicating that although Enceladus cannot absorb energy from the solar system, it rubbed against Saturn's tidal force, causing temperature to be generated inside the planet.
Enceladus is a planet with cold appearance but warm inside, and because its surface is a thick layer of ice, it isolates cosmic rays from deep space like a magnetic field.
So Enceladus seems to have bad conditions, but it has the conditions for life to be born. This can be seen from the Earth's snowball event that even if the outside is covered with ice and snow, as long as the internal sea water temperature is suitable, it is still a breeding ground for life.
Enceladus requires the birth of life
In addition to excellent environmental factors, there is also an important point in life, that is, whether it has the various elements required by life.
Among them, amino acid , which constitutes the basic unit of life, is the top priority. Due to the origin of amino acids, it is the theory of the native natural origin and the theory of the origin of the universe that was born on Earth.
In the last century, Miller simulated the early Earth environment and finally gave birth to amino acids. For a long time, the origin of life on Earth was the view of the mainstream scientific community.
However, this year, Hayabusa II detected more than 20 amino acids from the samples brought back by the asteroid Dragon Palace. In other words, although life was not as early as the Earth's environment, the asteroid carries a large number of basic units of life such as amino acids, which are spread everywhere in the universe like the fire of life.
Recently, He Jihua, a researcher at the Academy of Earth and Space Sciences of the University of Science and Technology of China, and Ghristopher Glein, a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute, and others collaborated to build an Enceladus seawater chemistry model. It is believed that Enceladus seawater may be rich in phosphorus elements. So far, the Enceladus ocean has collected six basic elements of life, and the relevant research results are also published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.
In the past, although scientists suspected that Enceladus might have given birth to life, there were no relevant discoveries about the "phosphorus" of the six basic elements of life (the six basic elements are: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus).
This time, the existence of phosphorus in Enceladus was determined through the Enceladus seawater chemistry model, which also means that Enceladus has become the only planet outside the earth that collects six basic life elements in the solar system. Although phosphorus is relatively small in life weight, it is known as the "energy currency". It is an indispensable material such as DNA, RNA, biofilms, bones and teeth in the organisms. The lack of phosphorus was once considered a key condition to limit the birth of life on other planets.
Conclusion:
If it is confirmed that life has been born in Enceladus, although this result will not change the life of human beings on Earth, it will have a huge impact on the entire human civilization.
Just imagine that in the solar system at the edge of Milky Way , two planets have given birth to life. So how many life will be given birth to the solar system with hundreds of billions of stars?
And in the entire universe, there are hundreds of billions of galaxies like the Milky Way. How many lives will be born?
In an instant, humans changed from the loneliness of being alone in the universe, and felt that the universe seemed too crowded.
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