Complex organic molecules that form part of the chain of chemical reactions that can result in life's building blocks have been found in the watery geysers of Enceladus, almost twenty years after the plumes were first sampled by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Cassini's mission to the ringed planet Saturn ended in 2017, but scientists are still making findings buried deep in its treasure trove of archived data.

The discovery of these organic molecules ("organic" meaning they contain carbon) strengthens the case for the icy moon Enceladus being of astrobiological interest. In 2005, Cassini discovered that plumes of water vapor were spraying into space from huge fissures in Enceladus' surface. These fissures are believed to lead to a subsurface ocean within the 310-mile-wide (500-kilometer-wide

See Full Page