The plasma spectrometer on Cassini, used to compile these data, also found other varieties of negatively charged ions, including hydrocarbons.

While it is not surprising that there is water, these ions Short duration is additional evidence of groundwater and, where water, carbon and energy, are already present some major ingredients for life.

“The surprise for us was to see the mass of these ions,” says the lead study author, Andrew Coates, Mullard Laboratory Space Science under the University College London (University College London).

The measurements were made on a pass from Cassini through the plume of ice particles from Enceladus.

Enceladus and enter the “club” that are members of the Earth and Titan, among other planets in our solar system, which is known there are negatively charged ions. Negative oxygen ions were discovered in the Earth’s ionosphere in the dawn of Space Age. On the surface of our planet, the negative ions of water are present in liquid water in motion, as in the cataracts.

A study three years ago by a team led by Anne Verbiscer, scientific department of astronomy at the University of Virginia, and unveiled important information about the plume of ice particles from Enceladus, including its impact on other moons of the system Saturn.

Enceladus is of great interest to astrobiologists, who believe that, in theory, could have primitive microorganisms in the ground, because everything indicates that there is liquid water beneath its surface.

Planetary astronomers are particularly interested in Enceladus because of its geological activity. With 505 kilometers in diameter, Enceladus is nearly seven times smaller than Earth’s moon. But unlike our moon, Enceladus is continually changing with the jets of its geysers of ice and liquid water, which are probably the result of heat and pressure in its depths.

The surface of Enceladus is quite young, possibly less than 100 million years. It is the sixth largest moon of the over thirty known orbiting Saturn. Because of its icy surface, Enceladus has the surface albedo (or reflectivity) higher than any other solar system body. Astronomer William Herschel discovered this satellite in 1789.

The satellite’s icy surface includes areas of smooth plains, “chimneys” of ice (frozen ground openings through which the material emerges internally), and long lines of fractures in its south pole.
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Source:amazings