That’s what Cassini spacecraft scientists had to say about what’s in those cold water geysers shooting off from the pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus (that’s pronounced “in-SELL-uh-dus”).

Jet Blue. Source: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The Cassini team was stunned to discover the geysers two years ago when the probe made its first flyby of the tiny moon. Then on March 12th, they got another chance to point their science instruments at the billowing plume during another close approach, passing just 120 miles from the surface. This time the optical cameras took a back seat to a suite of spectrographs designed to “taste and smell” what chemicals are present.

The team has just announced the initial science findings. It turns out the jets are mostly water vapor, with some ice crystals mixed in. Also present are methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and an abundance of both simple and complex organic chemicals.

Another instrument on board measured the temperatures at the fissures where the geysers erupt from the surface. Turns out it gets up to a hot and balmy -130 degrees Fahrenheit there. OK, that’s pretty cold. But it is significantly warmer than the -300 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures elsewhere on that moon. The researchers say some sort of heat source deep within the planet must be at work, and that underground pockets of liquid water very likely exist — maybe even relatively close to the surface.

So what does it all mean? The moon has water, organic compounds, and a heat source…and that makes it a prime hunting ground for astrobiologists (scientists who look for signs of extraterrestrial life). They don’t know at this point if that underground liquid water exists, and they certainly don’t know if any sort of microbial life form may be living there. But you can bet they’re excited about it!

Cassini will flyby Enceladus again in August.

–Kate Tobin, Senior Producer, CNN Science & Technology

The latest clue to finding life on Mars may have lot in common with the salt on your dining room table.

NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter has discovered evidence of salt deposits in 200 spots on the Red Planet, indicating that water was abundant in those places. Given the close connection between water and life on earth, these salt sites could be prime locations for proof of possible Martian life.

This false-color image shows a deposit of chloride (salt) minerals in blue in the southern highlands of Mars. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University/University of Hawaii

Odyssey’s Thermal Emission Imaging System snapped thousands of pictures in a range of wavelengths that helped scientists see evidence for salt. Only sites in the planet’s southern highlands, the most ancient rocks on Mars, appeared to contain chloride, a component of many kinds of salt.

The salt deposits formed about 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago, at a time when Mars may have had sporadic spouts of a wetter and warmer climate than the conditions observed there today, which are cold and arid.

Images revealed many of the salt deposits in basins with channels leading into them, which is “consistent with water flowing in over a long time,” said Philip Christensen, principal investigator for the camera at Arizona State University, in a NASA statement.

The salt probably didn’t come from a global ocean, as the sites of the deposits are disconnected, said team leader Mikki Osterloo at the University of Hawaii in the statement. But groundwater coming up to the surface in low spots could have generated the chloride sites, he said.

Scientists trying to track down proof of life on Mars have largely followed clues of sulfates, which could result from the evaporation of water, and clays, which suggest weathering by water. Chloride now joins the mix of leads to follow for scientists seeking close encounters with remnants of past Martian life forms.

The researchers published their findings in a recent issue of Science, just days before the shake-up about a possible $4 million budget cut from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover program.

–Elizabeth Landau, Associate Producer, CNN.com

Scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope have identified large quantities of the organic chemical methane as well as water on a planet orbiting a distant star.

Artist’s Rendering. Source: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Now that in-and-of-itself is not proof that life exists there. In fact, researchers say it almost certainly DOESN’T because the planet is orbiting very close to its “sun” and it therefore is much too hot (1700 degrees Fahrenheit) to support life.

But the new findings, published in this week’s edition of the journal “Nature,” do show that orbiting telescopes like Hubble and it’s yet-to-be-launched successor called the James Webb Space Telescope can detect organic chemicals on far-off worlds. And on some of those (one in a thousand? million? billion?) the conditions may be right to support life.

Will we ever find one? Impossible to say. But the tools are there to begin the search.

The Jupiter-sized planet in question is called HD189733b, and is orbiting a star about 63 light years away from our solar system in the constellation Vulpecula.

Astronomers have found nearly 300 of these so-called “extrasolar” planets since the first one was confirmed in 1995. NASA has drawn up plans for space-based telescopes like the Terrestrial Planet Finder and the Space Interferometry Mission to specifically search for Earth-like planets outside our solar system. At this point, both of those programs have been postponed indefinitely due to budget issues.

–Kate Tobin, Senior Producer, CNN Science & Technology

Where is it, you might ask??? Some astronomers say Mars, others claim it’s Jupiter’s moon Europa, and still others tout Titan, one of Saturn’s satellites. 

Cassini Image

But recently a new candidate has entered the field: Saturn’s moon Enceladus. That’s pronounced “in-SELL-uh-duss.” Two years ago the Cassini spacecraft, which is currently studying Saturn and its moons, flew by Enceladus and captured images and data showing Yellowstone-like geysers containing water erupting from the south pole. That, in turn, suggested pockets of liquid water, maybe even an ocean, may be lurking very near the surface. And, as any good astrobiology buff will tell you, wet places in the solar system will be the best places to look for extra-terrestrial microbial life. While there was no smoking gun, it sure got a lot of scientists’ attention. And Enceladus shot to the top of the list of places we might want to know a lot more about.

On Wednesday, Cassini will make its closest flyby ever of Enceladus, flying just 30 miles above the moon’s surface, eventually passing directly over that south polar plume. It is one a series of Enceladus flybys that Cassini will execute this year, and it will be the closest yet to any object in the Saturn system.

Instruments aboard the spacecraft will be able to determine what sort of other chemicals are in the geyser spray…which should help planetary scientists better figure out what’s going on with this intriguing moon.

–Kate Tobin, Senior Producer, CNN Science & Technology