A sniff test of water vapor spewing from Saturn's moon Enceladus shows it is gushing with organic molecules, increasing the possibility of life existing somewhere in the Saturn system. Scientists have been intrigued by the moon since the fountain of water was first spotted in 2005. Now they've identified a soup of prebiotic material there, similar to what's found in comets, from an analysis of data collected by the Cassini spacecraft. Nobody really knows how life began, but astrobiologists guess it required chemicals like those tasted by Cassini, a little liquid water and some unknown spark. Hunter Waite, a Cassini principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) in San Antonio, said Enceladus' newly understood composition should stir up previous notions of Saturn and its moons. "These findings will definitely get people to ask new questions about the formation of the Saturn system," Wait told SPACE.com. "The astrobiological potential of the Saturn system just went up a notch or two." Cassini made its observations during a high-speed pass 30 miles (48 km) above Enceladus on March 12, and recorded the highest temperatures yet detected near tiger stripe-like fissures on the icy moon's southern pole.

Waite and other scientists released their early findings about Enceladus' thermal activity and icy plume composition during a briefing today at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

View: Full Article | Source: Live Science

Im puzzled as to what my own reaction would be when alien life is found. It will be scary and awesome at the same time.

This is just cool - imagine finding life on another part of our own solar system. Even simple life would prove, without a doubt, that we are not alone and raise the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere from a logical certainty to an almost 100% certainty in real life. Incredible.

If they do find living organisms on Enceladus then we are one step closer to believng that the universe is filled with life.

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People are very stupid to even think that were the only occupants in our enourmous universe. Think of all the different species on our planet alone!
But i don't believe that there is actually anything intelligent in our solar system. Its a very nice article though.