Saturn's moon Enceladus is known for spewing jets of water-ice into space, with new research revealing a potential mechanism behind this phenomenon.
Jostling on the fault lines of Enceladus ’ frozen crust may be responsible for the plumes of icy material spewing from the moon’s watery underbelly, according to a team of researchers that recently modeled the motion. The team’s study focused on Enceladus ’ “ tiger stripes ”—long fissures mostly located in southern swaths of the moon that some thought were caused by an ancient impact event.
Last year, astrobiological hopes for Enceladus were boosted by the confirmation of phosphorus, a building block of life, in the plumes; just a few months ago, data from the Cassini spacecraft confirmed evidence of hydrogen cyanide—another life ingredient—being belched up by the moon. Enceladus’ south pole plume produces two peaks over the course of the moon’s 33-hour orbit. One theory was that the tiger-stripe faults open and close, allowing varying amounts of material to escape the moon.
Enceladus Explorer Of Enceladus And Titan THEO Cassini–Huygens Astrobiology Saturn Geyser Alexander Berne Technology Internet Io Environment Journey To Enceladus And Titan Gizmodo
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'Tiger stripes' on Saturn's moon Enceladus could reveal if its oceans are habitableRobert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.
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