Microbes Survive Simulated Enceladus Ocean

Researchers recreated Enceladus's alkaline ocean in the lab, adding salts, carbonates, and powdered rock, then introduced the methanogen Methanothermococcus okinawensis. The microbe grew by producing methane from hydrogen generated by water-rock reactions, even adapting to low carbon dioxide. Published in Science Advances, the experiment does not prove life exists there, but strengthens the case that the moon's subsurface ocean could support it.