Let’s Talk About Brines. No, Not That Kind.

Ed Rivera-Valentín has spent quite a bit of time thinking about brines recently. The particular ratio of salt to water in the marinade. The special ingredients that can give things an extra kick.

I am referring, of course, to the salty solutions that are found across our solar system, on planets and moons and even asteroids. These would be no good on a Thanksgiving turkey, but they might be one of the most intriguing substances in the search for alien life. Last month, Rivera-Valentín, a planetary scientist at the Lunar and Planetary, the first of three conferences over the next few years devoted to brines. Some water, a pinch of salt—this is the kind of mixture that, under the right conditions, could give life a chance to burble into existence, Rivera-Valentín told me. “When we find life,” he said, “it’s likely going to be associated with a brine.”