Strong Evidence of Ocean's Hidden Beneath Saturn's Moon Enceladus
Astronomers have found the strongest evidence yet for an ocean beneath the icy shell of Saturn's Enceladus, suggesting it could join the exclusive club of watery moons in our solar system.
The salty water is likely feeding jets of water-ice that spurt from the moon's south polar region. Such plumes were first reported in 2005, and ever since, astronomers have suspected a liquid ocean might lie beneath the icy shell of Saturn's sixth largest moon.
The new finding, published in the June 25 issue of the journal Nature, could bump this diminutive world measuring 310 miles (500 km) in diameter (about the width of Arizona) — into a class that includes Jupiter's Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
In addition, the water and other key life ingredients such as organic material found in the plumes, could provide a suitable environment for life precursors, said lead researcher Frank Postberg of the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany.
The results come from data collected by the Cosmic Dust Analyzer instrument aboard Cassini, which showed sodium salts within ice grains of Saturn's E ring. The composition of different sodium compounds and overall salt levels correspond with what the scientists would expect if there were an ocean beneath the moon's icy shell.
The salty water is likely feeding jets of water-ice that spurt from the moon's south polar region. Such plumes were first reported in 2005, and ever since, astronomers have suspected a liquid ocean might lie beneath the icy shell of Saturn's sixth largest moon.
The new finding, published in the June 25 issue of the journal Nature, could bump this diminutive world measuring 310 miles (500 km) in diameter (about the width of Arizona) — into a class that includes Jupiter's Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
In addition, the water and other key life ingredients such as organic material found in the plumes, could provide a suitable environment for life precursors, said lead researcher Frank Postberg of the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany.
The results come from data collected by the Cosmic Dust Analyzer instrument aboard Cassini, which showed sodium salts within ice grains of Saturn's E ring. The composition of different sodium compounds and overall salt levels correspond with what the scientists would expect if there were an ocean beneath the moon's icy shell.
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