back to article HIDDEN OCEAN of LIVING SOUP found on Enceladus, moon of Saturn

Analysis of the gravity field of Saturn's moon Enceladus, conducted by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, all but confirms that an ocean of water the size of Lake Superior lies underneath its shell of ice. And, excitingly, that body of liquid appears to be right under previously observed jets of salty water and organic molecules, which …

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  1. VeganVegan
    Happy

    I really do like enchilada soup.

    A primordial pleasure.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. bearded bear can
    Holmes

    a "surprising organic brew" containing "volatile gases, water vapour, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as organic materials"

    I think Enceladus is full of shit.

    1. southpacificpom
      Windows

      Are you seriously suggesting this is where Microsoft originated?

  4. Mark 85
    Coat

    It's not a moon

    It's a giant egg. I wonder when it will hatch.

    1. Martin Budden Silver badge

      Re: It's not a moon

      When it does hatch, it will look like this. I know it will because I've seen the 1969 documentary... although I admit I misunderestimated the scale first time around.

      1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: It's not a moon

        Upvote for the Bushism

  5. Sanctimonious Prick

    Awesome!

    Simply, awesome!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "jets of salty water"

    May it's how planets and moons reproduce??

  7. Leslie Graham

    This is a study from NASA's so called "scientists". Surely you know that they always fudge the data to get the results they want. This planet does not exist - it is another communist hoax by liberals and "scientists" to get more billions in grant money to support their luxury lifestyles.

    The government will just use this as an excuse to raise taxes.

    1. phuzz Silver badge
      Trollface

      Those filth space communists eh mate! Not only do they pretend that Saturn exists, but they've also put something in my telescope so it appears in the sky! They must be putting stuff in the water because I can see it with my naked eyes as well. All so they have an excuse to raise taxes of course.

      Perfidious bastards!

  8. Scott Broukell
    Meh

    Nothing to see here, move along.

    This is just a recent infrastructure project from Thames Water that has sprung a bit of a leak. They called round and left a note asking if a repair was important and would they like it done within the next 1000 years, but nobody was home.

  9. Bobby Omelette

    I'm ...

    ... more interested in who's operating the 3 thrusters in the second picture. Jets of salty water, my foot.

    1. DropBear
      Trollface

      Re: I'm ...

      Ah, but assuming an object's gravity is large enough to recapture the jets of matter it's ejecting, wouldn't using them as thrusters be like a ship blowing wind generated by on-board fans into its own sails?

      1. VeganVegan

        Re: I'm ...

        It's also known as pissing into the wind.

  10. TheProf
    Headmaster

    2010: Odyssey Two

    Well as there's already life on Europa why not on Enceladus too?

    (Where's the literary reference icon?)

  11. All names Taken
    Alien

    I worked at a place with a canteen just like that.

  12. Bunbury

    Slow growing, large?

    Nearest earth equivalent would seem to be under the antarctic ice sheets. A fairly low energy, cold environment where life has reacted by growing slowly but growing large over time. I suppose the main bar to evolution there would be major impacts. Sufficient time between them and you could develop an interesting biology.

  13. andy k O'Croydon
    Pint

    A beautiful photo of Enceladus

    I'd like to buy the whole of the Cassini team a beer for their continuing brilliance but to furnish them with the amount of alcohol they deserve would leave me brassic, and them too drunk to continue working.

  14. Stephen Gray

    Nonsense headline

    HIDDEN OCEAN of LIVING SOUP found on Enceladus, moon of Saturn. Really? El Reg has empirical evidence that life exists on Enceladous? Have you let NASA know or are you 100% factually inaccurate?

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Nonsense headline

      I thought maybe you might be new here and not quite au fait with the El Reg headlining guidlines but "251 posts • joined 18 Apr 2007" it appears you are either having a really, really bad day or are just a bit thick :-)

  15. i like crisps
    Alien

    A PLANET OF SOUP!!!!!

    Speaking as a Clanger, i for one am looking forward to emigrating to Enceladus, providing of course, that i can get through the strict immigration controls run by the Klingon High Council.....officious Bastards.

  16. This post has been deleted by its author

  17. WalterAlter
    Meh

    Budgetary Protection Probes

    Humans are funny. They'll fiddle as Rome burns, party on pastries as the bunker is fragged, take a Hawaiian vacation while the Ukraine blows up... Right now, space exploration is being driven by an egomania to discover life out there. But if one rigorously computes the rigorous requirements for life IN THEIR PROPER SEQUENCE, life, rigorously, on this, or rigorously on any other planet, is rigorously a zillion to one miracle. Did I mention the rigorous part?

    While we are chasing a chimera in the direction chimeras were last spotted, outer space continues to demonstrate how hostile to life it really is. From Tunguska to Chelyabinsk to the Younger Dryas extinction level event to a Norwegian skydiver's video'd near miss by a meteorite, it is obvious, to those who have not stuck knitting needles in their eyes, that outer space is trying to kill us and Mother Nature, yes, trying to kill our Mom!

    An apt metaphor for our ignorance is bliss attack would be prancing about, nets aflutter, butterfly collecting in no man's land in Verdun in 1916. Meanwhile a feeble Space Guard program attempts to offer "peace in our time" by tracking notoriously hard to see incoming artillery, with some annoyingly large bits of asteroid recently giving us less than two weeks heads up time.

    Unless we kick the butts of our "gyrocopter in every garage" science writers, towards motivating the governments of the planet to cooperate like never before on a cosmic ABM program, we are going to continue to be motivated towards the non essential while the gods turn Spaceship Earth into a pinata party.

    Not only are humans funny, they are stupid, even the smart ones.

    1. Frumious Bandersnatch

      Re: Budgetary Protection Probes

      Humans are funny. They'll fiddle as Rome burns

      Rome didn't burn in a day, you know. You've got to something to while the hours away. Why not this?

  18. This post has been deleted by its author

  19. Jacksonville

    We really need to go there

    Before I die. I hate not knowing.

  20. Spoobistle

    Elder Things

    Ancient life forms, buried under ice for millions of years... unwary human exploration... samples brought back...

    Where's H. P. Lovecraft when you need him?

    1. Frumious Bandersnatch

      Re: Elder Things

      Where's H. P. Lovecraft when you need him?

      I'll have you know that my doctorate at Miskatonic University has given me fine preparation for such a thing.

      Now where did I leave my Petri dish, length of wire and Bunsen burner? ...

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