NASA discovers ‘phosphorous’, key element for life, on Saturn's moon Enceladus

Phosphorus, a key element for various biological processes has been discovered in icy grains spewed from the interior ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Read here: ‘Alien’ mock signal sent to Earth from Mars for the 1st time: Report The new discovery, published by a German-led international team of scientists, was based on a review of data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, the first to the planet, during its 13-year exploration of the giant planet, its rings and its moons from 2004 to 2017, and was published in Nature journal on Wednesday. The new discovery made Enceladus - sixth largest among Saturn's 146 known natural satellites - a potential option as a habitable place in the solar system beyond Earth, if only to microbes. Read here: NASA's Kepler discovers trio of exoplanets in final days of decade-long mission However, scientists laid stress on the fact that the presence of phosphorus, and other key elements of life depict that such places like Enceladus are potentially habitable, not that is inhabited.