Organic molecules don’t mean life. And mysterious methane and rings in the Kuiper Belt.

 Organic molecules don’t mean life. And mysterious methane and rings in the Kuiper Belt. 

“An artist’s impression of plumes erupting onto the surface of Enceladus. Its fellow moon Titan is seen in the sky, and the distant Sun beyond. Credit: ESA/Science Office”

Saturn’s moon Enceladus has long dazzled scientists with its icy plumes that spew water and mysterious organic molecules into space, fueling hopes of a habitable ocean beneath. But new experiments suggest the story may be more complicated.”

“Researchers found that radiation bombarding Enceladus’s frozen surface could be producing many of the same organics detected in the plumes — meaning they might not come from the hidden ocean at all. This twist forces scientists to rethink how we interpret signs of habitability on icy moons.” (The Shocking Twist in the Search for Life on Saturn’s Icy Moon)

“Electron microscopy revealed chain structures resembling living organisms in meteorite fragment ALH84001” (Wikipedia, Allan Hills 84001). If those remnants are bacteria, they can be from Earth. There is a possibility that those bacteria. If they are bacteria. that came from Antarctic ice, and they traveled to the meteorite. Because its heat “called” those bacteria. Anyway, that meteorite is polluted. The temperature in Antarctica is not so low that it could keep that meteorite sterile. 

“An image of the rock named “Cheyava Falls” in the “Bright Angel formation” in Jezero crater, Mars collected by the WATSON camera onboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The image shows a rust-colored, organic matter bearing sedimentary mudstone sandwiched between bright white layers of another composition. The small dark blue/green to black colored nodules and ring-shaped reaction fronts that have dark rims, and bleached interiors are proposed to be potential biosignatures. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS” (ScitechDaily, Strange Mars Mudstones May Hold the Strongest Clues Yet of Ancient Life)

“NASA’s Perseverance rover has uncovered mysterious mudstones in Mars’ Jezero Crater that contain organic carbon and strange mineral textures.” (ScitechDaily, Strange Mars Mudstones May Hold the Strongest Clues Yet of Ancient Life)

“These features, possibly shaped by redox reactions similar to those fueled by microbes on Earth, may represent potential biosignatures.” (ScitechDaily, Strange Mars Mudstones May Hold the Strongest Clues Yet of Ancient Life)

Confirmed life in our solar system is limited to planet Earth. All other harbors for life are hypothetical. It’s possible that there have been some kind of lifeforms on Mars, but before there is any laboratory analysis about samples brought from Mars, nothing is more uncertain than uncertain. NASA says that there is “strong evidence” that some primitive lifeforms, like prokaryotic bacteria, could have lived on Mars a long time ago. 

Confirmation about that thing can be very difficult. If there have been some bacteria on Mars, the thin atmosphere that lets UV-radiation reach the Mars surface can destroy all genetic material. From those bacteria.  Those remnants would be hollows in stones. Without DNA or RNA, it is impossible to confirm that some form is from bacteria. 

There are strange forms in some meteorites, but the problem is that those meteorites, including Allan Hills 84001 from Antarctica, are polluted. That means those primitive bacterial fossils, if they are bacterial fossils, can be from Earth. There have also been organic materials in Saturn's Enceladus moons' icy geysers. There is a possibility that these organic materials are formed due to sunlight. 

Maybe Saturn will pull ions to Enceladus, and that can cause the formation of those organic compounds. But as we know, there is a possibility that there can be lifeforms in that icy world. Otherwise, Organic molecules can form. Because of some kind of chemical reactions that have no biological origin. 

“An SwRI-led team used Webb telescope observations (white) to detect methane gas on the distant dwarf planet Makemake. Sharp emission peaks near 3.3 microns reveal methane in the gas phase above Makemake’s surface. A continuum model (cyan) is overlaid for comparison; the gas emission peaks are identified where the observed spectrum rises above the continuum. An artistic rendering of Makemake’s surface is shown in the background. Credit: Courtesy of S. Protopapa, I. Wong/SwRI/STScI/NASA/ESA/CSA” (ScitechDaily, Webb Telescope Detects Gas on Distant Dwarf Planet Makemake for the First Time)

Telescopes noticed gas on the dwarf planet Makemake. 

The surprise was that the gas JWST detected is methane. That means there are some chemical reactions on those distant worlds. Those dwarf planets like Makemake are so far away that they cannot get methane from places like Titan. And that is one of the most interesting things in the universe. There is a possibility that weak energy from the distant sun, along with some ions, can have so much energy that. It can push carbon and hydrogen together in a very low-energy but stable environment. 

 Makemake is far away from Earth in the Kuiper Belt. That dwarf planet is one of the coldest places in our solar system. That’s why existing gas is a surprise. But conditions in the Kuiper Belt are incredibly stable. Makemake can pull gases from space around it. And that thing makes it possible that those dwarf planets have a thin atmosphere. Those objects called trans-Neptunian objects TNOs are so far away from the sun that the solar wind has no force to blow those atmospheres away. And that’s why some dwarf planets like Makemake can have atmospheres. 

“Artist's impression of Quaoar with its ring and its moon Weywot” (Wikipedia, Quaoar)

“Quaoar compared to the Earth and the Moon” (Wikipedia, Quaoar)

Researchers noticed that the dwarf planet Quaoar may have another moon or some unknown ring system. Quaoar has a ring system and one known moon. That is an incredible thing, because that dwarf planet is very small. The ring system can form around that dwarf planet when its moon acts like Saturn’s and other gas planets’ rings. Shepherd moons that trap particles between them. 

The problem is that the shepherd moons are always on both sides of their ring. There is a possibility that Quaoar’s moon Weywot and its gravity can trap those particles between Quaoar and Weywot, but is that moon’s and Quaoar’s gravity so strong that they can trap those particles? 

But those rings are in the place where those planets’ Van Allen belts are. Shepherd moons from holes between rings. But the plasma ring. Around those gas giants is the thing that traps most of those particles. That means Quaoar must, or should have, some kind of magnetic field. 

That dwarf planet is mysterious. It's too small for internal nuclear reactions to form those plasma rings. Its moon seems very far away from that dwarf planet. And that is one of the most interesting things about that distant and mysterious object. 

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-discovery-moon-orbiting-mysterious-distant.html

https://scitechdaily.com/the-shocking-twist-in-the-search-for-life-on-saturns-icy-moon/

https://scitechdaily.com/space-mystery-unexpected-new-ring-system-discovered-in-our-own-solar-system/

https://scitechdaily.com/strange-mars-mudstones-may-hold-the-strongest-clues-yet-of-ancient-life/

https://scitechdaily.com/webb-telescope-detects-gas-on-distant-dwarf-planet-makemake-for-the-first-time/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Hills_84001

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaoar