The search for alien life is lengthy and often builds on small hints that life is out there. Still, even the most rational among us agree aliens have to be out there somewhere, and, in fact, they might even be in the neighborhood, according to a new NASA report.
NASA has been studying Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, as a potential home for alien life for quite a while, due to its enormous underground oceans. The case for life just got that much more compelling, however, because NASA has confirmed something that’s long been expected: There’s hydrothermal activity going on.
How do we know? Well, Nasa has found evidence that there are hydrothermal vents on Enceladus. That’s important because, on Earth, these vents are gardens of the deep sea, offering warmth and food sources to an enormous number of animals. One of the key questions about finding alien life is finding situations where it can thrive, and life tends to find a way, even in the most extreme places on Earth.
Of course, there’s a key difference between having the necessary ingredients for life and actually being an environment teeming with it, but this makes it more likely. And, of course, if it’s habitable but not inhabited, that brings up an interesting question: Could humans move to Enceladus ourselves, long term?
(Via The Verge)