New Life-Giving Molecules Found in 17-Year-Old Data From Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

The south pole of Enceladus—a tiny moon orbiting Saturn—is a volatile place. In this region, the moon’s subsurface ocean spews jets of water through four “tiger stripe” cracks in the icy crust, culminating in a single plume of ice particles that stretches hundreds of miles into space.

The Cassini spacecraft spent two decades studying these particles to search for evidence of habitability on Enceladus. In 2008, the probe flew straight through the icy plume to study particles that were…