Enceladus jets: are wet or just crazy?
Scientists continue to search for the cause of the geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The geysers are visible as a large plume of water vapor and ice particles escaping from the moon. Inside the pen are jets of dust and gas. What are the causes and control of aircraft is a mystery. The Cassini spacecraft continues to collect new data for possible clues. At the heart of the search is the question of whether the planes come from an underground source of liquid water. Some models offer theories that the jets may be caused by mechanisms that do not require liquid water. Cassini careful scientific detective work is testing the possibility of getting an answer. What generates Enceladus' jets is a burning question in planetary science, because if liquid water on Enceladus is shown to have everything you need, in theory, to provide a habitable environment. A recent model offers the possibility that planes could be violent gusts of fresh frozen unstable when exposed to space Saturn's tidal forces open vent inside the "band Tiger "region of the moon's south pole. New reported the results of Cassini on the issue November 27 issue of Nature, however, cast doubt on that hypothesis. When Enceladus is farthest from Saturn, the theory goes, the air vents to compress, reduce or shut down the reactors. "Our observations do not agree with the schedule for failures due to opening and closing and voltage surges Compression, "JPL said Candice Hansen, Cassini scientist ultraviolet imaging spectrograph team. At the same time, Hansen said, the new findings support, at least, a theory that the reaction attributed to a source of liquid water within Enceladus. Hansen and his team conducted experiments in 2005 and 2007 to observe the stars passes through Enceladus' plume. During this so-called stellar occultation, the spectrometer will measure the water vapor content and density of the jets . The experiment tests the prediction that a greater amount of material to be measured from fissures opening in 2005, and less material in 2007, when the crack is closed. Instead, Hansen reports, the opposite was found for be true. The observations showed that the pen was almost twice as dense in 2007 as in 2005, contradicting the model you have the tides is to tighten the control of the plumes. "We do not completely rule because of the different geometries of our two concealment, but definitely not support this hypothesis, "said Hansen. Hansen said the new Cassini observations, however, do support a mathematical model developed in 2007, which deals with vents and nozzles channel water vapor from a warm, probably source of liquid to the surface at supersonic speeds. The authors theorize that model only the high temperatures near the melting point of water ice may exist for the large number of ice particles present in the state of equilibrium in Enceladus' jets. A source of liquid water inside Enceladus, they said, could be similar to Earth's Lake Vostok, beneath Antarctica, where liquid water exists beneath the ice. Enceladus In case the ice grains then condense the exhaust steam from the water source and flow through cracks in the ice crust to the surface and in space. What are the causes and controls of the jets and if there is liquid water remain uncertain, but there may be more tracks soon, as Enceladus is a major goal for the Cassini to study in its expanded Equinox Mission. The presence of liquid water inside Enceladus would have major implications for future astrobiological studies on the possibility of life within the ice bodies outside the solar system.
