Returning Samples from Enceladus for Life Detection 1 Marc Neveu*1,2, Ariel Anbar3,4, Alfonso Davila5, Daniel P. Glavin1, Shannon M. MacKenzie6, 2 Charity Phillips-Lander7, Brent Sherwood8, Yoshinori Takano9, Peter Williams4, Hajime 3 Yano10. 4 1Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA 5 2Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA 6 3School of Earth & Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA 7 4School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA 8 5NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA 9 6Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA 10 7Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, USA 11 8Blue Origin, Seattle, WA, USA 12 9Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science & Technology, Yokosuka, Japan 13 10Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, 14 Japan 15 * Correspondence: 16 Marc Neveu 17
[email protected] 18 Keywords: Enceladus, astrobiology, sample return, life detection, ocean worlds, icy satellites 19 Number of words: 12683 20 Number of figures: 6 + 4 Tables 21 Abstract 22 Evidence suggests that Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus has a subsurface ocean that sources plumes of 23 water vapor and ice vented to space from its south pole. In situ analyses of this material by the 24 Cassini spacecraft have shown that the ocean contains key ingredients for life (elements H, C, N, O 25 and possibly S; simple and complex organic compounds; chemical disequilibria at water-rock 26 interfaces; clement temperature, pressure, and pH). The Cassini discoveries make Enceladus’ interior 27 a prime locale for life detection beyond Earth.