Research: Earth organisms can survive on the satellite of Saturn

Scientists from the University of Vienna conducted an experiment in which they showed that some species of archaea (the simplest unicellular organisms without a core) could survive on Entzelad, a satellite of Saturn. The results of the study are published in Nature Communications, La Times briefly writes about them.

Entezelad at the moment, according to scientists, is considered one of the most suitable for the existence of life by the object of the solar system. It has liquid water (it is assumed that it is in the lake under the surface of the satellite), nitrogen, as well as the energy that is produced by friction in the satellite nucleus.

As part of the study, the three types of Archae (Methanothermococcus Okinawensis, Methanothermobacter Marburgensis and Methanococcus Villosus) were placed in conditions close to those with which they could be tank on the Enzelad. The survival and growth of organisms was studied in a mixture of hydrogen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, methane, nitrogen and ethylene. The temperature of the medium was set in the range from 65 to 80 degrees Celsius, and pressure - from 2 to 90 bar.

The experiment showed that Methanothermococcus okinawensis archea is best survived with all the scenarios proposed. In particular, they could function normally, grow and secrete methane in the presence of formaldehyde and carbon monoxide - in conditions when the rest of the archeas died.

The authors of the experiment emphasize that the results show only that archaeia, in principle, could survive in the conditions of the Enzelad. To understand whether they will survive there in reality, more large -scale research is needed.

• Entezelad never visited spacecraft. The most information about the body was given by the scientists by the Kassini probe, which studied the satellite from 2005 to 2015.
• In addition to the enzlad, theoretically favorable conditions for the survival of microorganisms are on Mars and on the satellite of Jupiter Europe.