Chapter 1656 [Enceladus: The most likely extraterrestrial body to contain life]
If no extraterrestrial life has been discovered on Mars, then we cannot talk nonsense.
Because it is close to the earth and has a launch window of more than two years, Ah Mei now has the ability to send a probe to land on Mars. If no life is found and he forcibly announces the discovery of life, Ah Mei will be exposed.
But the more distant Saturn is different.
The West currently does not have the money to engage in such a large space project, and the technology is not up to par. Although the Cassini probe visited such a distant place in the last century, it is really not possible now.
Amnesia itself cannot build the Saturn-5 rocket now, and it cannot even resume production of the F-22.
Even if we really have the ability to send the detector, it will be more than ten years later. It won't matter if we don't have it by then, and it won't matter if it is exposed. At most, it will be a scientific research mistake.
Therefore, even if there is no life on the several large moons of Saturn, it can still be announced that life has been discovered. Fang Hong just took it for granted and the West has no ability to falsify it now.
It's not up to me to decide whether there is or not, this is the right to speak.
…
But at this moment, a scientist present looked at Fang Hong and said: "As for the question of whether extraterrestrial life exists, compared to Mars, we all agree that the possibility of life on Enceladus is higher than on Mars."
These words made Fang Hong's heart move, and he asked pretending to be curious: "Oh? Enceladus? This is a planet in the outer solar system. At such a long distance, the probability of life appearing is higher than that of Mars?"
Enceladus is an icy planet, small in size, with a diameter of about 500 kilometers, and is the sixth largest satellite of Saturn.
Although small in size, Enceladus is very bright and is the celestial body with the highest reflectivity in the solar system.
This shows that there is a large amount of water ice on the surface of Enceladus. Due to its distance in the outer solar system, the surface of Enceladus is covered by a layer of ice with a thickness of 40 kilometers, and its ultra-high reflectivity shows that these
The ice is still very clean.
The scientist said: "As early as 2005, when the Western Cassini probe flew over Enceladus, it discovered that there were huge ice volcanoes erupting in the south pole of the planet. These mist-like white water vapor erupted at a height of
It reaches an astonishing 250 kilometers, and looks like the tail of a comet when viewed from space."
"This also directly proves that the large amount of water ice currently present in the E ring of Saturn comes from Enceladus. The orbit of Enceladus is exactly in the densest area of Saturn's E ring, and very accurately follows the E ring.
The plane orbits Saturn."
The scientist explained it in an easy-to-understand way for the funder's father: "Currently, academic circles have confirmed that there is a global ocean more than 30 kilometers deep under the 40 kilometers of ice on Enceladus, and there are also hydrothermal fluids similar to those at the bottom of the Earth's oceans.
system, which is also the research result of the Cassini detector of the West."
"Current academic research on Enceladus has confirmed that there are six elements on this satellite: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus, which are exactly the six basic elements indispensable for the formation of life.
This has directly made Enceladus stand out among the many moons in the solar system that have liquid oceans, becoming the most likely to have life among the celestial bodies that may have life."
Hearing this, Fang Hong asked pretending to be curious: "I remember that sunlight is completely invisible at a depth of 1,000 meters under the sea. Enceladus is covered by 40 kilometers of ice, and there is no light at all in the underground ocean.
, can life be born?"
In fact, as a person who has traveled through time and space, whether it is Mars or Enceladus, Fang Hong knows the truth better than every scientific expert present, but he certainly cannot tell it.
The scientist smiled and said: "The scientific community used to think so, but current research has proven that the absence of light does not mean that life cannot survive. This has been proven on the earth."
He went on to say: "Life is still found near the heat sources on the bottom of the Earth's oceans, which are lightless below a thousand meters deep, and life also exists in the Marina Bay Trench at a depth of 11,000 meters. There are many kinds of life at a depth of 11,000 meters.
Not only is the water pressure on the ocean floor huge, but light cannot penetrate at all. Logically speaking, there should be no life under such conditions, but the fact is that life exists."
"The underground ocean of Enceladus also has heat sources, which are similar to the heat source environmental conditions of the geothermal vents in the deep sea of the Earth. Then the possibility of life is huge, at least much higher than the probability of life on Mars."
Fang Hong said to himself: "The surface is covered by 40 kilometers of ice, and there is actually a 30-kilometer-deep global ocean underneath. It has such magical geological features."
The scientist didn't know that Fang Hong was asking questions knowingly, and thought he didn't understand, so he continued to explain to him: "Enceladus is a satellite that is tidally locked by Saturn, and only one side always faces Saturn."
Fang Hong smiled and said: "I know this, the moon is also tidally locked by the earth."
The scientist nodded and smiled and continued: "The orbit of Enceladus is 180,000 kilometers away from Saturn, just right at the E ring of Saturn. The formation of the E ring is the material provided by the cryovolcano eruption of Enceladus."
"In addition, Enceladus and Dione have an orbital resonance relationship. That is, for every two revolutions of Enceladus, Enceladus makes exactly one revolution. This orbital resonance relationship will cause orbital disturbances of Enceladus, and this
This disturbance will provide additional heat to Enceladus, and combined with the heat from the Earth's core itself, a global ocean will be formed."
"But because it is located in the outer solar system and is too far away from the sun, the surface temperature of Enceladus is not enough to maintain the liquid form of water, thus forming a 40-kilometer-thick ice layer covering the world, but the temperature deeper underground
The higher it is, and the ocean is formed from melting. In the deep sea, close to the heat source, there are hydrothermal vent sources similar to those in the deep sea of the Earth."
Fang Hong nodded: "That's it."
The scientist said: "However, even if there is life on Enceladus, it should not be too advanced. It may be some life with a simple structure, and it will only exist at the mouth of the underground hydrothermal vent, because only such an environment can provide what life needs."
Energy, and the size of life should be extremely small. The larger the size, the more energy it requires. The heat of Enceladus does not allow the evolution of large-bodied life."
The current scientific community is only speculating that there is a high possibility of life on Enceladus, but as a time traveler, Fang Hong knows very well that life does exist on Enceladus. In Fang Hong's previous life, humans successfully sent
A highly intelligent detector landed directly on Enceladus, finally confirming the existence of life.
