Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus packs snacks suitable for microbial life. Data from the Cassini spacecraft show that the vaporous plume shooting out of the moon’s southern pole contains molecular hydrogen. It is probably generated when water in the moon’s subterranean ocean reacts with rock in its core, researchers report in the April 14 Science. Such reactions at hydrothermal vents and in other extreme environments on Earth produce high abundances of hydrogen, which some microbes use for food. There’s enough hydrogen on Enceladus to sustain microbial life, the team suggests. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/food-microbes-found-enceladus
