What did scientists freeze when they found methanol on Enceladus?

Water, hydrogen, and now organic matter Although the sulfur and phosphorus needed for life have not yet been discovered, this does not affect the conjecture that the rise of Enceladus is the most likely place for extraterrestrial life in the solar system Hayley dunning, media Commissioner of natural science at Imperial College London, recently reported that Cassini spacecraft detected methanol in the plume of Enceladus, which means that Enceladus has another known element of life Enceladus, also known as Enceladus, is a white planet covered with thick ice, about 500 kilometers in diameter, although it has the same name as the giant in Greek mythology Discovered in 1789 by Wilhelm Herschel, the father of stellar astronomy, it is one of Saturn's many moons discovered before the space age Source: the amazing discovery before NASA / JPL Caltech / Space Science Institute Cassini ran out of dye, Cassini probe was launched in 1997, after 7 years of trekking, entered the orbit of Saturn in 2004, and then continuously transmitted the relevant data and images of Saturn and its satellites back to earth Cassini let us know that the number of Saturn's moons is up to 62, rather than 18 or 30 previously observed These moons are unique: there is liquid flowing under Titan's ice shell, and there is abundant oxygen in Titan's atmosphere Of course, the most amazing one is Enceladus In 2005, Cassini discovered that there are some parallel strip landforms called "tiger fault zone" in the south pole of Enceladus, and some ice debris geysers erupted Therefore, scientists speculated that there might be an "underground sea" in Enceladus In March 2015, scientists found that in addition to water, there are silica particles that make up rocks in the sea water ejected by Enceladus The hot springs on the earth and the hot water gushing from the sea floor also contain silica particles Therefore, in the rocky sea floor of Enceladus, there is likely to be high-temperature hot water gushing out of the cracks, just like the sea floor of the earth When Earth's first life was born, it was likely to feed on hydrogen sulfide contained in this hot water On October 28, 2015, Cassini passed through the plume ejected from Enceladus, and hydrogen was found in the plume 49 km from the surface of Enceladus However, Cassini is facing the dilemma of running out of fuel For this reason, scientists have to arrange a solemn curtain call for Cassini, which has been in service for 20 years, to gradually reduce the flight orbit, reduce the fuel consumption, and complete 22 round-trip explorations in the gap between Saturn and Saturn's rings On September 15, after the final data transmission, it fell into Saturn's atmosphere However, the latest results of Cassini's discovery have pushed its attention to the top again, because Cassini collected new samples of organic compounds as it flew over the plume The latest analysis results obtained by the 30 meter IRAM radio telescope of Spanish Sierra Nevada (Sierra Nevada, Spain) show that the organic compounds distributed around Enceladus are methanol molecules Source: Dr Emily drabek Maunder of Cardiff University (Cardiff University), who participated in the cosmic chemistry research project, reported on the results of methanol discovery on Enceladus at the national astromy meeting recently Plumes from Enceladus spew out of the ocean beneath its ice shell and into Saturn's E-ring orbit Using the spectrometer, Cassini determined that the plume of Enceladus contains 98% water and 1% hydrogen; simple organic molecules such as carbon dioxide, methane and ethane; and more complex organic molecules methanol Dr Dave Clements of Imperial College of technology, a member of the research team, thinks that there may be two sources of a large number of methanol molecules accidentally discovered One is that there are microorganisms in the ocean of Enceladus that metabolize methanol The other is that plumes in the surface ocean, or after leaving the ocean, occur complex chemical reactions when they spread further Dr Clements points out that the discovery of more complex organisms may have increased our confidence in finding life on Enceladus "Observation is not always straightforward The significance of this study is that when we report that we have found evidence of life on Enceladus, we need to take more careful measures to verify it " More accurate data are needed to detect the microbial life signs in the research The life signs of microorganisms are detected by mass spectrometer The structure of amino acids and any organic molecules, especially the fatty acids that make up the cell membrane, is analyzed by spectrometer The pH value, oxygen content and temperature of seawater are also analyzed to comprehensively evaluate their impact on organic life bodies The mission also requires a microscope to directly image organisms that may be only a few microns in seawater.