If life exists on the icy ocean moons of Enceladus and Europa, detectable trace molecules could survive just below their frozen surfaces.
Scientists have long theorized that both Enceladus, one of Saturn's 146 known moons, and Europa, one of Jupiter's four large Galilean moons among its total 95 moons, could host vast liquid water oceans that harbor life. If this is the case, then complex organic molecules like amino acids and nucleic acids, the building blocks of life as we know it, could serve as "biosignatures" of life on the worlds.
