Enceladus tagged posts

How one of Saturn’s Moons Ejects Particles from Oceans Beneath its Surface

Enceladus, the sixth largest of Saturn’s moons, is known for spraying out tiny icy silica particles — so many of them that the particles are a key component of the second outermost ring around Saturn. Scientists have not known how that happens or how long the process takes. A study now shows that tidal heating in Enceladus’ core creates currents that transport the silica, which is likely released by deep-sea hydrothermal vents, over the course of just a few months.

Although it is relatively small, Enceladus — the sixth largest of Saturn’s 83 moons — has been considered by astronomers to be one of the more compelling bodies in our solar system.

Enceladus stands apart from other celestial bodies because of both its appearance and its behavior...

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Saturn moon, Enceladus, could support life in its Subsurface Ocean

Courtesy of Southwest Research Institute This figure illustrates a cross-section of Enceladus, showing a summary of the processes SwRI scientists modeled in the Saturn moon. Oxidants produced in the surface ice when water molecules are broken apart by radiation can combine with reductants produced by hydrothermal activity and other water-rock reactions, creating an energy source for potential life in the ocean.

Using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) modeled chemical processes in the subsurface ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The studies indicate the possibility that a varied metabolic menu could support a potentially diverse microbial community in the liquid water ocean beneath the moon’s icy facade.

Prior to its deorbit in Sep...

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Inner Complexity of Saturn Moon, Enceladus, revealed

Artistic representation of Enceladus's core with plumes coming from the bottom of the planet
Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech Using new geochemical models, SwRI scientists found that CO2 in Enceladus’ ocean may be controlled by chemical reactions at the seafloor. Integrating this finding with previous discoveries of H2 and silica suggests geochemically diverse environments in the rocky core. This diversity has the potential to create energy sources that could support life.

Enceladus’ subsurface ocean composition hints at habitable conditions. A Southwest Research Institute team developed a new geochemical model that reveals that carbon dioxide (CO2) from within Enceladus, an ocean-harboring moon of Saturn, may be controlled by chemical reactions at its seafloor...

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Explaining the ‘Tiger Stripes’ of Saturn’s moon Enceladus

NASA image of Enceladus.
Saturn’s tiny, frozen moon Enceladus is slashed by four straight, parallel fissures or “tiger stripes” from which water erupts. These features are unlike anything else in the solar system. Scientists at UC Davis, the Carnegie Institution and UC Berkeley now have an explanation for them. (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute image).

Slashed across the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus are four straight, parallel fissures or ‘tiger stripes’ from which water erupts. These fissures aren’t quite like anything else in the Solar System. Researchers now think they have a model to explain them.

Saturn’s tiny, frozen moon Enceladus is a strange place. Just 300 miles across, the moon is thought to have an outer shell of ice covering a global ocean 20 miles deep, encasing a rocky core...

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