6th Grade · Science · Activity · shared by Luke Morgan
This 6th Grade Science activity explores astrobiology, extreme life on Earth, and the possibility of life on icy moons like Europa.
Exploration Report: The Oceans of Enceladus
Imagine a world where the surface is nothing but a thick, frozen crust of ice, hundreds of millions of miles away from the warmth of the sun. This is Enceladus , a tiny moon orbiting the planet Saturn. For a long time, scientists thought this moon was a dead, frozen rock. However, recent space missions have discovered something incredible: giant plumes of water vapor and ice crystals shooting out from cracks in the moon's southern pole. This suggests that a liquid water ocean exists trapped beneath the ice.
While Enceladus is too far from the sun for plants to grow, scientists are looking at our own deep oceans for clues about how life might survive there. On Earth, we have found life in places that were once thought impossible to inhabit. Your task is to analyze the data from Earth's deep-sea models and the findings from Enceladus to determine if life could exist in that dark, alien ocean.
On Earth's dark ocean floor, scientists discovered hydrothermal vents that serve as a model for understanding alien worlds. In these pitch-black waters, ecosystems survive without any sunlight at all. Instead of photosynthesis, microscopic organisms perform chemosynthesis to make food using chemical energy. When space probes analyzed the plumes of Enceladus, they discovered complex organic molecules and molecular hydrogen. On Earth, certain microbes use this exact same hydrogen as a primary energy source. If hydrothermal vents exist on the seafloor of Enceladus, they could provide the chemical energy needed to support microbial life in total darkness.
Evidence File: Comparing Environments
Review the data table below to compare the conditions found at Earth's deep-sea vents with the data collected from the plumes of Enceladus.
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