New Delhi: In 2005, Cassini encountered jets of water bursting from cracks in the icy shell of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, providing the first evidence of a subsurface ocean. These spouts are responsible for forming the E ring of Saturn, with the finer particles escaping the gravity of the small ice moon, with the returning ice and sand particles returning to the surface. When Cassini was designed and launched, scientists did not know of the water spouts on Enceladus, and did not expect the spacecraft to fly straight through it. Cassini sampled the material from Enceladus forming the E ring, as well as the material from the spouts itself.

The remote interior of Enceladus. (Image Credit: ESA).

Fresh analysis of the latter has revealed a wider inventory of organic molecules than were previou

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