During a flyby of the small moon on March 12th, the Cassini probe detected significant amounts of organic chemicals as it flew through powerful geyser-like jets of ice blasting into space. This active moon appears to*be generating*organic chemicals much like the substances found in comets. As Cassini bravely travelled through the plume at a speed [...]

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More on Enceladus:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080327/...sc/saturn_moon

A friend (elsewhere) had proposed that perhaps a comet smacked into Enceladus ages ago.

Three points of interest:

1) They have high molecular weights, but it does not sound to me like the evidence pinpoints organics for the higher weights - we might learn more on subsequent passes when the 'dust catcher' is working.

2) What has become clear is that there is no evidence of ammonia, which was an important part of the earlier 'underground ocean hypothesis'

3) The temperature is now constrained to be AT LEAST -135F; which reduces the need for ammonia; but also makes modeling a source of all the thermal energy even more difficult. This is a great part of the puzzle!

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jwj

If you always believe what you already know, you can't learn anything - Liz