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LIFE BENEATH

ENCELADUS’ ICE?

❯

ALIEN MICROBES COULD, IN THEORY, feast

beneath the icy surface of Saturn’s moon

Enceladus. In April, astronomers reported that

the Cassini spacecraft had discovered a chemical

brew erupting from Enceladus’ oceans — the same

kind that bacteria eat at Earth’s hydrothermal vents.

Discover talked with Hunter Waite, Cassini researcher

and NASA’s program director of space science and

engineering, to take us there.  ERIC BETZ

Hunter Waite

Program Director of Space

Science and Engineering

NASA

Q&A