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...carbon dioxide – plus traces of other organic molecules – in the plume. This lead to to much speculation about the possibility of life in the ocean. Like Titan, Enceladus is now recognised as one of the solar system’s most likely locations for extraterrestrial life. A recent report of hydrogen in Enceladus’ plume has given that recognition even greater prominence....

...carbon fibre, adhesives, lubricants, greases and more – each with its own function and its own history of cleanliness. A huge amount of industry’s investment in planetary protection goes towards identifying the ways contamination of spacecraft happens and how it can be contained. For example, a common approach is to isolate critical areas of the spacecraft where...

...carbon dioxide into sugars and other biologically useful molecules, a role normally fulfilled by photosynthesis in plants on the Earth’s surface. Studies using data from the Cassini mission have shown that some of the microorganisms that live in hydrothermal vents deep in Earth’s oceans could survive in Enceladus’s ocean, using hydrogen as their main source of...

...carbon-based, but it is a complex system. So, AI could satisfy some of the criteria for life, especially as it becomes more sophisticated. You may have different levels of understanding of each of the examples and so have quite different notes to those here, but this will have made you realise that defining life is very complex and may even change as we come to understand...