Saturn moon Enceladus has plumes with speeds over 1,300 mph

By William Atkins
Thursday, 27 November 2008 18:49

Science - Space

New, exciting research from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows that the plumes being ejected from Saturn’s moon Enceladus are likely composed of liquid water because of their extremely fast speeds.


According to the Associated Press article Plumes spewing from Saturn moon may contain water, ”Astronomers looking at the spectacular supersonic plumes of gas and dust shooting off one of Saturn's moons say there are strong hints of liquid water, a key building block of life.”
 
The research, lead by Candice J. Hansen from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), appears in the Thursday, November 27, 2008 issue of the journal Nature.

Its title is “Water vapour jets inside the plume of gas leaving Enceladus.”

Its other authors are: L. W. Esposito, A. I. F. Stewart, B. Meinke, A. K. Larsen, (all from the University of Colorado, Boulder); B. Wallis, A. R. Hendrix, (all from JPL, California; W. Pryor (Arizona College, Coolidge); J. E. Colwell (University of Central Florida, Orlando); and F. Tian (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
 
This new research continues other research that shows Enceladus is one of the most likely places in our solar system, besides Earth (of course), to find microscopic life, either in its past or currently.

They state in the abstract to their paper, “A plume of water vapour escapes from fissures crossing the south polar region of the Saturnian moon Enceladus. Tidal deformation of a thin surface crust above an internal ocean could result in tensile and compressive stresses that would affect the width of the fissures; therefore, the quantity of water vapour released at different locations in Enceladus' eccentric orbit is a crucial measurement of tidal control of venting.”

The Hansen team make some strong statements based on their research. See page two for more details.