One of the main goals of most ongoing and future space exploration missions is to search for habitable conditions and potential signs of extraterrestrial life on Solar System bodies. Space Agencies have usually implemented this by ‘following’ a specific diagnostic that has an important role in life, with ‘following the water’ being the most famous — but by no means the only — indication. However, the use of only one life-essential element has limitations. Here we propose to follow the serpentine as a way to integrate multiple aspects of habitable conditions as we know them, given that the presence of serpentine implies a water supply, organic molecules, bioavailable essential elements, energy sources, greenhouse gases and preservable environments. Serpentine minerals are associated with the complex process called serpentinization, a subtype of water–rock interactions. Serpentinization and its products are therefore likely to provide insights into where to find potential life-inhabited niches on celestial bodies such as Mars and icy moons.

大多数正在进行和未来的太空探索任务的主要目标之一是寻找太阳系天体上的宜居条件和外星生命的潜在迹象。太空机构通常通过“遵循”在生活中具有重要作用的特定诊断来实现这一点，其中“遵循水”是最著名的（但绝不是唯一的）指示。然而，仅使用一种生命必需元素有其局限性。在这里，我们建议遵循蛇纹石作为整合我们所知道的宜居条件的多个方面的一种方式，因为蛇纹石的存在意味着供水、有机分子、生物可利用的基本元素、能源、温室气体和可保护的环境。蛇纹石矿物与称为蛇纹石化的复杂过程有关，蛇纹石化是水-岩石相互作用的一种亚型。因此，蛇纹石化及其产物可能有助于了解在火星和冰卫星等天体上哪里可以找到潜在的生命栖息地。