Overview

• The study, published in Nature Astronomy, reports qualitative detections of multiple complex organic classes in ice grains sourced from Enceladus' ocean.
• Researchers leveraged Cassini's ~18 km/s 2008 plume pass, where impact-fragmented water clusters reduced spectral masking in the Cosmic Dust Analyzer data.
• Identified molecule types include aliphatic and (hetero)cyclic esters, alkenes and ethers, which on Earth participate in pathways toward amino acids and lipids.
• The results reinforce that Enceladus hosts key CHNOPS-related constituents and likely hydrothermal chemistry, while not constituting evidence of life.
• ESA says the findings will inform instrument design for a potential follow-up mission in the 2040s to search for biomarkers with higher-resolution measurements.