http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/03/ocean-saturn-moon-enceladus-life_n_5085814.html And http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/apr/03/ocean-enceladus-alien-life-water-saturn-moon Wow. Super interesting stuff. Really hope that NASA's budget is raised.
Awesome! Very interesting. Even if life that is found is as simple as a small and derpy fish, I'd still absolutely love to hear about it.
I dunno. It's pretty cool that they finally found concrete evidence of an ocean underneath Enceladus, something that people have been speculating since the first time Cassini saw the plumes, but it doesn't seem likely to me that life could exist in such a place, nor underneath Europa for that matter. Titan has a way better chance of hosting life, in my opinion.
You don't necessary need water to start life, you know. I could totally be wrong about this in 100 years time, but I honestly don't believe there would be life underneath Enceladus. Don't mean to start a flame war, lol.
You may be wrong about the conclusion, but your premise is correct: water isn't essential, because not all lifeforms in the universe are expected to be carbon-based. Scientists just take the presence of water on a celestial body as best possible evidence indicating potential for life.
I never meant to imply that water is essential for life but that based on what we know, life would be more likely to form in liquid salter water rather than oceans of methane.