Cassini will dive into Enceladus' erupting plume to search for life

Flying 30 miles above a massive plume of water erupting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, the Cassini probe will gather the best samples ever from an ocean beyond Earth on its 21st flyby at 30,580 kph.

On October 28 2015, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will zoom 50 kilometers above Enceladus, sampling the plume of material erupting from the moon's south polar region. Cassini has come closer to Enceladus in 2008, around 25 km above the surface, but this is the first time it will drop so low through a plume.

The spacecraft will be looking to identify hydrogen molecules in the plume which, in turn, would help characterise the potential for life in the slightly salty ocean. So it won't actually be searching for little sea creatures but mostly indicators of biological processes like the ratio of amino acids.

The plume was first spotted in 2005 where researchers concluded that hydrothermal activity, the circulation of warm or hot water through rock. 

Cassini was not equipped to detect life during its launch in 1997, but scientists hope the flyby will provide clues for extraterrestrial life.

Researchers are eager for the chemical makeup of Enceladus’ plumes and also hope to confirm whether the eruptions are tight columns or curtains of jets running along fractures in the south pole.

If life does prove to exist, and more missions would be needed to confirm that, it might range from microscopic algae to little fish, the scientists said.

Cassini’s orbit around Saturn will not be disturbed by the plume penetration, scientists asserted. The US-European spacecraft has two years of life remaining before it vaporises in Saturn’s atmosphere.

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