Sunday, June 28, 2009

Origin of life: This time it's salt water

One of these days, I am going to make a list of all the implausible origin of life scenarios I have heard, but here is one, involving ice particles on one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus :
These salty ice grains suggest that the interior of the moon may have liquid water that is washing salty minerals out of rock into a subterranean sea.

The scientists write that the presence of alkaline salt water, along with the organic compounds and thermal energy that have been observed at the south pole, "could provide an environment well suited for the formation of life precursors."
For way more origin of life stories, go here.