Ruth successfully defended her doctoral thesis „An interdisciplinary Approach:
On the Habitability of Enceladus’ Potential Subsurface Water Reservoir“.

Supervisors: Maria G. Firneis and Christa Schleper

Ruths thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to analyse the habitability of the icy moon Enceladus. For that, estimations about possible physical and chemical conditions have been made. In the frame of these studies, calculations about Enceladus’ interior structure were performed, both for a local and a global ocean case, respectively. The next step was to analyse, which kind of organisms would theoretically be able to survive under Enceladus-like conditions.

"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke (British science fiction writer)