Beneath the thick icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus lies a vast ocean, one of the most intriguing locations in the search for extraterrestrial life. However, reaching this ocean presents a formidable challenge, as it is separated from space by layers of ice several kilometers thick.
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Now, a new scientific study offers a possible way to explore its secrets without having to penetrate those layers, by searching for salt crystals that can hold microscopic amounts of water inside them.
The study was conducted by a team led by researcher Liam Pereira, from the British Diamond X-ray facility, and its results were published on October 6, 2026 in the journal "Communications Earth & Environment".
Researchers discovered that this mineral, during its crystallization, can trap small pockets of the surrounding liquid, and the crystals then turn into natural vessels that retain some of the water in which they were formed.
These pockets may represent an important chemical record of the environment in which they originated, and may retain biologically important materials if they were ever present.
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To arrive at these results, the researchers prepared a solution containing salts similar to those expected in Enceladus' waters, and then monitored its freezing process using powerful X-rays and three-dimensional imaging techniques.
Observations revealed that growing natron crystals can surround small amounts of liquid and trap them within their crystal structure.
The team examined approximately 3,800 separate granules and found fluid pockets within about 3% of them. However, the most striking finding was that all 29 of the largest granules contained these pockets.
The results suggest that larger crystals may be better targets for collecting samples that carry information about the original water.
However, the researchers used a solution that was about five times more concentrated than the estimates derived from Cassini's measurements of Enceladus's material, with the goal of producing large crystals that could be examined.
Therefore, the pockets preserved in crystals that form on the moon may not accurately represent the original composition of the ocean, because the freezing process itself changes the concentration of salts in the remaining water.
Where do spacecraft look for signs of life?
The significance of the findings stems from the exceptional nature of Enceladus, which ejects jets of water vapor and ice particles through cracks near its south pole.
The Cassini mission previously revealed that these materials are associated with a salty subsurface ocean, which allows for the study of its contents without descending to its depths.
The researchers suggest that future missions should focus on recent deposits near the fountain openings, where salt crystals may be found that were formed from material ejected from within.
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