Water, energy, and organic molecules are the key ingredients for creating life from non-living material in a process called Abiogenesis. Enceladus has hydro thermal vents which emit plumes of material into space, and researchers have found some of this material to be compounds bearing nitrogen and oxygen. Similar compounds are known to play a role in producing amino acids which, are the basis of known life.
Researchers have also found complex organic molecules in the moon's ocean. Complex organic molecules are molecules rich in carbon atoms, and they are another essential component in creating known life. Enceladus appears it could have the ingredients needed for life to arise, but at this time it isn't known if life has, or if Enceladus has the conditions necessary for Abiogensis to occur.
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