Specialists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered favorable conditions for life on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. It turned out that the salinity of the oceans there reaches the level necessary for the emergence of biological species. The findings of the work are described in the journal Science Advances.

The surface of Enceladus is frozen, and under the layer of ice are the oceans. During the study, scientists conducted computer simulations, in which they managed to track the properties of the satellite. The data obtained showed that more saline water areas are located under thicker ice at the poles, and less salty water is located under thinner ice at the equator. The salinity of the waters of Enceladus corresponds to about 30 grams of salt per kilogram of water. The oceans on Earth have a salinity of 35 grams of salt per kilogram of water.

In July 2022, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory robotics engineer Ethan Shaler unveiled a project to study the subglacial oceans on the Europa and Enceladus satellites using a swarm of tiny robots.