Does Saturn's moon have alien life under ice layer? We may be able to find out without landing on it

The search for alien life has been the preoccupation of mankind for several centuries. There can always be an obscure planet hundreds of lightyears away that could harbour life but there are worthy candidates in our Solar System itself. Saturn's moon Enceladus is one of them.Enceladus is an icy world and scientists think the under its icy surface, there is a vast global ocean. It is almost an equation that where there's water, there's life. But how do we know for sure whether Enceladus hides life under its icy sheets.

The answer to this question is not as easy. At its thinnest, the ice cover is at least five kilometres thick. Drilling through these thick ice sheets and swimming in the ocean underneath is an extremely hard task. Enceladus is half a Solar System away. And drilling 5 kilometres through ice is a challenging task here on Earth to start with. Imagine doing it on some other planet's moon.

But scientists now think that we may not have to drill through ice to check whether life exists in the oceans of Enceladus. A probe would not even have to land on the surface.

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Water plumes have been seen erupting from the surface of Enceladus. These go hundreds of kilometres into space. Scientists think that analysis of this water may give us indication of whether or not life exists in Enceladus' oceans.

Just as how life exists deep, deep in Earth's oceans where sunlight does not reach, the oceans of Enceladus may have some heat source. And life may well exist.

But we may have to only wonder whether there are aliens there, till we make a spacecraft capable of hovering above Enceladus analysing water from the plumes.

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