Complex chemicals found on Enceladus improve prospects for life

Saturn’s moon Enceladus appears to have a greater range of complex organic molecules than previously thought, increasing the likelihood of chemical reactions that produce the building blocks of life.

Enceladus is one of the most promising places for life to exist in our solar system. It has a vast liquid ocean underneath its icy crust, from which plumes of ice and vapour erupt, and there is some evidence of energy sources on the seabed, like the hydrothermal vents in Earth’s oceans.…