Saturn moon shows potential for water and life: NASA

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Cassini spacecraft detected temperatures and organic materials indicating possible conditions for life on Saturn's moon Enceladus as it flew through giant plumes at the moon's south pole, NASA officials said Wednesday.

The spacecraft found a high density of water vapor and both simple and complex organic chemicals as it passed within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of Enceladus on March 12 to assess the geyser-like plumes shooting out from surface fractures, the space agency said.

Cassini's instruments detected temperatures on Enceladus's south pole hot-spot as high as minus 135 degrees F (minus 93 C), which suggested that sub-surface temperatures might be high enough for the existence of liquid water, one of the keys to possible life, John Spencer, one of the scientists on the Cassini team, told a news conference.

"It means we have a great deal of energy being delivered to the surface in this region," said Spencer, who works on Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer team at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

"It's entirely possible that there's going to be liquid water not too far below the surface of these fractures," he said.

"We see on Enceladus the three basic ingredients for the origin of life" -- energy, organic compounds and water, said Larry Esposito of the University of Colorado, who works on Cassini's ultraviolet imaging spectrograph.

The Enceladus fly-by was the first of four planned this year to investigate the massive plumes emanating from a unique hot region discovered by Cassini at the south pole of the 505 kilometer- (314 mile-) diameter moon in 2005.