NASA scheduled a press conference for 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2. Specifically, they will discuss: "an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life."
Results from the mission reveal that the atmosphere of Rhea, Saturn's second-largest moon at 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) wide, is extremely thin and is sustained by high-energy particles bombarding its icy surface and kicking up atoms, molecules, and ions into the atmosphere.
The density of oxygen is probably about 5 trillion times less dense than it is in Earth's atmosphere. However, the formation of oxygen and carbon dioxide could possibly drive complex chemistry on the surfaces of many icy bodies in the universe.
"The new results suggest that active, complex chemistry involving oxygen may be quite common throughout the solar system and even our universe," said Ben Teolis, a Cassini team scientist based at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "Such chemistry could be a prerequisite for life. All evidence from Cassini indicates Rhea is too cold and devoid of the liquid water necessary for life as we know it."
"The discovery of this tenuous atmosphere provides key information on how radiation can drive chemistry on icy surfaces throughout the universe,” said Geraint Jones from UCL’s Mullard Space Science Lab.
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