Plausible Emergence of Biochemistry in Enceladus Based on Chemobrionics

Abstract

Saturn's satellite Enceladus is proposed to have a soda‐type subsurface ocean with temperature able to support life and an iron ore‐based core. Here, it was demonstrated that ocean chemistry related to Enceladus can support the development of Fe‐based hydrothermal vents, one of the places suggested to be the cradle of life. The Fe‐based chemical gardens were characterized with Fourier‐transform (FT)IR spectroscopy and XRD. The developed chemobrionic structures catalyzed the condensation polymerization of simple organic prebiotic molecules to kerogens. Further, they could passively catalyze the condensation of the prebiotic molecule formamide to larger polymers, suggesting that elementary biochemical precursors could have emerged in Enceladus.

Tubular Structures of Calcium Carbonate: Formation, Characterization, and Implications in Natural Mineral Environments

“…It also has implications for the suggested role of chemical gardens as catalyzers of prebiotic chemistry, in particular in the soda lakes and soda oceans likely to have formed on the primitive Earth, as well as Earth-like planets and moons. [19,27,37,70] Carbonate vesicles and gardens were shown to form under the conditions prevailing in modern soda lakes, considered to be analogues of the soda oceans on the early Earth. Structures obtained with calcium, barium, and manganese cations were composed of highly crystalline metal carbonate minerals, whereas cobalt(II)-and iron(II)-based vesicles and gardens proved to be less crystalline materials.…”

Enceladus' Tiger Stripes as Frictional Faults: Effect on Stress and Heat Production

“…These approximately 2 km wide and 130 km long features correlate with the pattern of increased heat flux (e.g., Spencer et al., 2018) and the positions of Enceladus' jet plumes (Porco et al., 2006). The plume samples collected by Cassini hint at a hydrothermal system in the deep interior (Hsu et al., 2015; Waite et al., 2017), making Enceladus one of the top candidates for hosting extraterrestrial life (Angelis et al., 2021). The activity of the jet plumes varies significantly depending on the position of Enceladus in its orbit, which indicates that the activity is related to periodic variations in tidal stress (Hedman et al., 2013; Hurford et al., 2007; Ingersoll et al., 2020; Nimmo et al., 2014).…”

Dark-induced vertical growth of chemobrionic architectures in silver-based precipitating chemical gardens

“…For example, in the search for life on other celestial bodies such as Enceladus on its subsurface due to its hydrothermal activity on the seafloor where penetration of light is limited and where the spewing of molecules relevant to the origin of life might occur, this result presented here on the dark-induced chemical garden growth in silver-based chemobrionics could have relevant implications for plausible biochemistry on such celestial bodies. 28,29 Thus, in this report, we first describe the experiments that resulted in silver-based chemical garden-like structures. Later, we provide substantial evidence for our hypothesis of how light restricts chemical garden-like growth in silver silicate.…”