Evidence of water found on Saturn moon

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

The orbiting Cassini spacecraft has spotted what appear to be water geysers on one of Saturn's icy moons, raising the tantalizing possibility that the celestial object harbors life.

The surprising images from the moon Enceladus represent some of the most dramatic evidence yet that water in liquid form may be present beyond the Earth.

Excited by the discovery, some scientists said Enceladus should be added to the short list of places within the solar system most likely to have extraterrestrial life.

Scientists generally agree several ingredients are needed for life to emerge, including water in liquid form and a stable heat source. But so far, the evidence of any large amounts of water in liquid form on celestial objects beyond Earth is circumstantial and indirect, based on scientists' analysis of rocks and other data.

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Needless to say, if this pans out, it will be monumental. Not only would the discovery of extraterrestrial life right here in our solar system most likely motivate a massive pouring of money into NASA, but there is also the potential for great numbers of fundamentalist Christians being forced to reevaluate their beliefs. That is, the book of Genesis says nothing about life being anywhere but Earth, and fundamentalists, who assert that the Bible should be interpreted literally, would spin their heads around and around being confronted with hard evidence that their version of creation can't possibly be true. On the other hand, fossils are easily rationalized away by these types, so maybe I'm being too optimistic. But, man, liquid water...that's pretty big news. At this point, I'd bet a hundred dollars that we find, at least, microscopic life there. And if we find microscopic life so close to home, there's a much bigger chance that intelligent life exists somewhere else. This is pretty damned cool.

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