E.T. = Enceladus Terrestrial?
Mentor: Dr. Christopher Glein, Southwest Research Institute
Enceladus is a small moon of Saturn with big possibilities. Beneath its icy surface is a vast ocean of liquid water that contains hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. Life can survive without sunlight in and around hydrothermal vents on Earth, so it would theoretically be possible for life to exist on Enceladus too. I am studying a compound, methylamine, that contains carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen and is formed from many processes that occur biotically, or with life. Methylamine has recently been discovered on Enceladus and I am going to be trying to determine how it has been formed. First, I created a model of Enceladus’s ocean, and next, I will be testing different ways carbon can react to form methylamine near hydrothermal vents to see if these processes could be responsible for the production of methylamine. I am only looking at the processes not involving life to see if it would be necessary to involve ones that do. So, basically, I am trying to prove that the methylamine found on Enceladus is not formed by life. This is very important because if my study comes back that none of the processes without life can produce the compound, then the rational conclusion to come to would be that alien life exists on Enceladus.