UNLIMITED
ASK Space
SOLAR SYSTEM
How does organic material on Enceladus compare to that found on Mars?
The most intriguing difference is how easily one finds complex organics on Saturn’s moon Enceladus compared to Mars. If you consider the enormous efforts put into the search for organics on Mars since the 1970s without success, it is just amazing how easily we found complex and diverse organic chemistry on Enceladus just with a spacecraft flying by. However, it is a huge success that NASA’s Curiosity finally found organics on Mars. From what I read the organics on Mars – like the Enceladean ones – could be large molecules that contain aromatic and aliphatic structures. Whereas we find oxygen and probably nitrogen in both organic molecules, the Mars organics do contain sulphur. The Cassini instruments were not very sensitive to sulphur, so it might be the case that it is there as well without us noticing it.
On Mars about 50 space missions with
