Key Building Block of Life Detected on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

An international team, including UW Astrobiology Postdoctoral researcher Fabian Klenner, discovered phosphorus in the form of phosphates on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus. Phosphates are vital for all life on Earth because they are part of cell membranes, DNA, and bones for example. Enceladus is now known to have all the ingredients for life as we know it. Their work has been published in Nature on June 14th, and is highlighted in The New York Times, GeekWire, CNN, and others.

You can see their publication here and read the UW News Article here.