Fresh Evidence of Complex Chemistry Found in The Alien Ocean of Saturn's Moon

A fresh look at data collected by NASA's Cassini probe nearly two decades ago has revealed new, complex organic molecules on Saturn 's icy moon Enceladus – pointing to tantalizing chemistry taking place deep beneath its hidden ocean.

In plumes of water ice spewing from cracks in Enceladus's shell, a team led by astrobiologist Nozair Khawaja from the University of Stuttgart in Germany has identified a large number of organic molecules, including several seen for the first time in this context.

This study marks the first detailed chemical analysis of freshly ejected plume grains, rather than the older, space-weathered grains in Saturn's E ring .

Related: Saturn's Ocean Moon Enceladus Has All The Building Blocks For Life, Research Shows

Although the processes that forge these molec