Ocean in Enceladus Enhances the Case for Panspermia

The recently announced confirmation of a global ocean beneath the icy outer shell of the Saturnian moon Enceladus provides strong support for cometary panspermia. Recent discoveries have shown that cyanobacteria, diatoms and other photosynthetic microphytoplankton live in the deep, dark bathysphere of the terrestrial oceans. Evidence for liquid water regimes that might harbour life and organics on other icy moons, comets and Pluto adds credence to the concept of a single connected microbial biosphere in the solar system. These discoveries provide additional support for the possibility that life may be widely distributed throughout the distant regions of the Solar System and the validity of the hypothesis of Panspermia.