Disclaimer: I am neither a planetary scientist nor a biologist.
Can someone help me understand the desire to put a DNA sequencer on the Enceladus mission? I haven't previously read anything that suggests DNA as being so fundamental to life that it's a safe assumption exotic moon microbes have it. In fact, discovering that exotic moon microbes have DNA exactly like Earth life would seem like the biggest discovery humanity has yet made.
Can someone help me understand the desire to put a DNA sequencer on the Enceladus mission? I haven't previously read anything that suggests DNA as being so fundamental to life that it's a safe assumption exotic moon microbes have it. In fact, discovering that exotic moon microbes have DNA exactly like Earth life would seem like the biggest discovery humanity has yet made.
What am I missing?