Experts have to find out whether earth bacteria can live on Saturn

Techno 28 February, 2018

2018-02-28 12:44

Experts have to find out whether earth bacteria can live on Saturn
Specialists of the University of Vienna in the course of the experiment proved the ability of terrestrial bacteria to survive in conditions of one of Saturn’s moons.

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The research team, headed by Simon Rittmann, came to the conclusion that certain types of terrestrial microbes are able to multiply in conditions of Enceladus, reports Rus.Media.

In the experiment used three types of archaea: Methanothermococcus okinawensis, Methanococcus and Methanothermobacter marburgensis villosus, which was placed in the conditions similar to those likely to exist on Enceladus. On Earth, these microorganisms use carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen as food, releasing methane as a by-product.

In particular, the organisms were placed in a mixture of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrogen and in some cases ethylene. Pressure ranged from 2 to 90 bar and the temperature from 65 to 80 degrees Celsius (so it may be closer to areas of hydrothermal activity on the satellite).

To make life more difficult for archaea, a team of Rittman also subjected them to the effects of certain harmful compounds, which could exist on Enceladus, and which are known to inhibit the growth, such as formaldehyde, ammonia and carbon monoxide. Germs just get rid of these chemicals and continue to prosper.

“This is the first interdisciplinary study on scraggane from Earth, which could produce methane gas in conditions of Enceladus. We were able to show that in the foreseeable conditions of Enceladus, and the data of environmental parameters in the laboratory was biological methane production and that the microorganism of the hydrothermal system on Earth can grow in the presence of suspected substances inhibit inhibitors in combination with high pressure,” said Simon, Rittmann.

At the same time, according to other scholars, one of the weaknesses of the new study is that the acidity of the medium used in the experiment was below the range of that recorded on Enceladus the Cassini spacecraft.