US EditionRadiolytic Habitable Zone Validated with Enceladus as Top Candidate for Subsurface Life
ABU DHABI REGION, ABU DHABI, JUL 30 – NYU Abu Dhabi researchers propose cosmic rays interacting with underground water on Mars and icy moons could fuel microbial life, with Enceladus showing the highest potential.
- Dimitra Atri's team at NYU Abu Dhabi published a July 28, 2025 study proposing the Radiolytic Habitable Zone concept for life on Mars, Europa, and Enceladus.
- The study arose from simulations estimating energy from cosmic rays interacting with underground water or ice, challenging views that life needs sunlight or volcanic heat.
- Researchers found radiolysis could sustain microbial metabolism deep underground, with Enceladus offering the best conditions, followed by Mars and Europa.
- Atri explained that instead of focusing solely on warm, sunlit worlds, researchers can now also explore environments that are cold and dark, provided they contain subsurface water and are influenced by cosmic radiation.
- This finding broadens habitability criteria and suggests future missions might focus beneath surfaces to detect life fueled by cosmic-ray-induced chemical energy.
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20 Articles
Cosmic Rays Could Support Life Just Under the Ice
If you've ever dreamed of traveling through space as an explorer, you know there'll be some serious "downside dangers". One of them is cosmic rays. These high-speed particles slam through anything, including our bodies, damaging DNA and ripping molecules apart. As dangerous as they sound to unprotected spacefarers, they could actually help microscopic life survive hiding under the icy surfaces of places like Europa or Enceladus.
Life could survive beneath the surface of Mars and other planets using high energy particles from space
A new study from NYU Abu Dhabi has found that high-energy particles from space, known as cosmic rays, could create the energy needed to support life underground on planets and moons in our solar system.
© National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) / Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Radiolysis by cosmic radiation opens up new opportunities for extraterrestrial life in dark, underground zones of celestial bodies.
A new report finds that high-energy particles from space, known as cosmic rays, could generate the energy needed to support life underground on planets and moons in the solar system.
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