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Nature

Title:		Macromolecular organic compounds from the depths of Enceladus
Author(s):		Postberg F; Khawaja N; Abel B; Choblet G; Glein CR; Gudipati MS; Henderson BL; Hsu HW; Kempf S; Klenner F; Moragas-Klostermeyer G; Magee B; Nolle L; Perry M; Reviol R; Schmidt J; Srama R; Stolz F; Tobie G; Trieloff M; Waite JH;
Address:		"Institut fur Geowissenschaften, Universitat Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. Frank.Postberg@geow.uni-heidelberg.de. Klaus-Tschira-Labor fur Kosmochemie, Universitat Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. Frank.Postberg@geow.uni-heidelberg.de. Institut fur Geologische Wissenschaften, Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Frank.Postberg@geow.uni-heidelberg.de. Institut fur Geowissenschaften, Universitat Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. Leibniz-Institute fur Oberflachenmodifizierung (IOM), Leipzig, Germany. Laboratoire de Planetologie et Geodynamique, UMR-CNRS 6112, Universite de Nantes, Nantes, France. Space Science and Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, USA. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA. Institut fur Raumfahrtsysteme, Universitat Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, USA. Astronomy Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. Wilhelm-Ostwald-Institut fur Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Universitat Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. Klaus-Tschira-Labor fur Kosmochemie, Universitat Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany"
Journal Title:		Nature
Year:		2018
Volume:		20180627
Issue:		7711
Page Number:		564 - 568
DOI:		10.1038/s41586-018-0246-4
ISSN/ISBN:		1476-4687 (Electronic) 0028-0836 (Print) 0028-0836 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Saturn's moon Enceladus harbours a global water ocean (1) , which lies under an ice crust and above a rocky core (2) . Through warm cracks in the crust (3) a cryo-volcanic plume ejects ice grains and vapour into space(4-7) that contain materials originating from the ocean(8,9). Hydrothermal activity is suspected to occur deep inside the porous core(10-12), powered by tidal dissipation (13) . So far, only simple organic compounds with molecular masses mostly below 50 atomic mass units have been observed in plume material(6,14,15). Here we report observations of emitted ice grains containing concentrated and complex macromolecular organic material with molecular masses above 200 atomic mass units. The data constrain the macromolecular structure of organics detected in the ice grains and suggest the presence of a thin organic-rich film on top of the oceanic water table, where organic nucleation cores generated by the bursting of bubbles allow the probing of Enceladus' organic inventory in enhanced concentrations"
Keywords:		Exobiology Extraterrestrial Environment/*chemistry Ice/analysis *Saturn Volatilization;
Notes:		"MedlinePostberg, Frank Khawaja, Nozair Abel, Bernd Choblet, Gael Glein, Christopher R Gudipati, Murthy S Henderson, Bryana L Hsu, Hsiang-Wen Kempf, Sascha Klenner, Fabian Moragas-Klostermeyer, Georg Magee, Brian Nolle, Lenz Perry, Mark Reviol, Rene Schmidt, Jurgen Srama, Ralf Stolz, Ferdinand Tobie, Gabriel Trieloff, Mario Waite, J Hunter eng 724908/ERC_/European Research Council/International Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. England 2018/06/29 Nature. 2018 Jun; 558(7711):564-568. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0246-4. Epub 2018 Jun 27"