To their amazement, scientists detected a huge cloud of water vapor over the area and relatively warm fractures in the crust that are supplying the cloud of water vapor and ice particles that extend into space. The area was littered with house-sized ice boulders and surfaces carved by tectonic patterns unique to this region of the moon. The pictures revealed a surprisingly youthful and complex terrain, almost entirely free of impact craters. These findings first began to take shape in 2005, when Cassini’s cameras obtained the first-ever detailed images of the south polar region of Enceladus. Planetary scientists now have Enceladus to consider as a possible habitat for life.” They all point to the possibility of a habitable ocean world well beyond Earth’s habitable zone. “Multiple discoveries have increased our understanding of Enceladus, including the plume venting from its south pole hydrocarbons in the plume a global, salty ocean and hydrothermal vents on the seafloor. “Enceladus discoveries have changed the direction of planetary science,” said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This points to hydrothermal vents deep beneath Enceladus’ icy shell, not unlike the hydrothermal vents that dot the ocean floor here on Earth. Cassini detected these passing silica nanograins, which can only be generated where liquid water and rock interact at temperatures above 90 degrees Celsius (about 200 degrees F). The E ring is mostly made of ice droplets, but among them are peculiar nanoparticles. Some of the material falls back onto Enceladus, and some escapes to form Saturn’s vast E ring. The material shoots out at about 800 miles per hour (400 meters per second) and forms a plume that extends hundreds of miles into space. What’s more, jets of icy particles from that ocean, laced with a brew of water and simple organic chemicals, gush out into space continuously from this fascinating ocean world. This meant gases may have been originating from the moon's surface or interior.Ĭassini revealed the dramatic truth: Enceladus is an active moon that hides a global ocean of liquid salty water beneath its crust. Something-perhaps an atmosphere-was pushing against Saturn's magnetic field near Enceladus. It was data from the magnetometer aboard the Cassini spacecraft that prompted scientists to take a closer look at Enceladus with a targeted flyby. Thickness of layers shown here is not to scale. Illustration of the interior of Saturn's moon Enceladus showing a global liquid water ocean between its rocky core and icy crust.
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