CHINA TOPIX

03/29/2024 07:06:11 am

Make CT Your Homepage

101 Erupting Geysers Discovered on Enceladus

Enceladus

Scientists have found 101 geysers erupting on Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus, suggesting it's possible for liquid water to reach from the moon's underground sea all the way to its surface.

Cameras onboard the Caasini Saturn Orbiter surveyed the south polar terrain of Enceladus for seven years, where it discovered the location of individual geysers coincident with small hot spots.

Like Us on Facebook

This discovery revealed the mechanism by which Enceladus released most of the material making up Saturn's E ring. 

Enceladus is a unique geological basin renowned for its four prominent tiger striped fractures.

It is the sixth-largest moon on Saturn and was discovered by William Herschel in August 28, 1789. Very little is known about Enceladus until two Voyager spacecraft passed it in the 1980s.

Enceladus was first observed during a Saturnian equinox, like many Saturnian satellites discovered during that time.

Researchers compared the geyser's locations with thermal emission maps because the greatest geyser activity coincides with the greatest thermal radiation.

They found out that geysers and tidal stresses have a connection but this correlation is insufficient to answer its production process.

Carolyn Porco from the Space Science Institute said this finding means that geysers are not near surface phenomenon, but have a much deeper root.

Through analysis of the gravity data gathered by Cassini, researchers concluded that the sea beneath the ice shell was the only plausible source of material ejected by the geysers.

Researchers also found that if the narrow pathways were filled with liquid water, the ice shell can remain open from the sea all the way to the surface.

They also said that as Enceladus orbits Saturn, the brightness of its plume formed through all the geyser periodically changes.

Real Time Analytics