Ghostly plumes
July 3rd 2008 09:42
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Jets of icy particles burst from Saturn’s moon Enceladus
Ghostly plumes that leap into space from Saturn’s moon Encleadus. A new theory has emerged that suggests that Enceladus has a warm liquid lake just underneath moon’s the surface. Enceladus' is a relatively small moon the diameter is about 500 kilometers.
The enormous jets are directed upwards form the surface of what appears to be water vapor and ice particles.
Images taken to date appeared to show the plume emanating from the fractured south polar region of Enceladus, but the visible plume was only slightly brighter than the background noise in the image, because the lighting conditions were not suitable to reveal the true details of the feature. This potential sighting, in addition to the detection of the icy particles in the plume by other Cassini instruments, prompted imaging scientists to target Enceladus again with exposures designed to confirm the validity of the earlier plume sighting.
The new images show individual jets, or plume sources, that contribute to the plume with much greater visibility than the earlier images. The full plume towers over the 505-kilometer-wide moon and is at least as tall as the moon's diameter.
Heat radiating from the entire length of 150 kilometer (95 mile)-long heat map of the active south polar region of Saturn's ice moon Enceladus. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)
The Cassini spacecraft flew into mysterious icy plumes erupting from Saturn's moon Enceladus in an attempt to gather data more on the composition of eruptions.
In March 2008 NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew close enough to sample a surprising organic brew erupting in geyser-like fashion from Saturn's moon Enceladus during a close flyby on March 12. Scientists were surprised that this tiny moon is so actively, "hot" and brimming with water vapor and organic chemicals.
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