The Spacecraft Cassini detects Heat Below the Icy Surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus
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| This enhanced-color Cassini view of southern latitudes on Enceladus features the bluish "tiger stripe" fractures that rip across the south polar region. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute |
There is a new study just published in the journal Nature Astronomy reporting that the south polar region of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus is warmer than expected just a few metres below its icy surface. Something that subjects that Enceladus' ocean of liquid water might be only a couple of kilometres beneath this region, and that is closer than previously estimated.
This excess heat is especially pronounced over three fractures which are similar to the "tiger stripes" those geological features are prominent, actively venting fractures that slice across the pole, however they do not appear to be active at the moment. So a Seemingly dormant fractures lying above the moon's warm, underground sea points to the dynamic character of Enceladus' geology, suggesting the moon might have experienced several episodes of activity, in different places on its surface.
This would agree with earlier results of a 2016 study by a team independent of the Cassini mission that estimated the thickness of Enceladus' icy crust at an average depth for the ice shell of 18 to 22 kilometres, and with a thickness of less than 5 kilometres at the south pole. In the words of Cassini Project Scientist Linda Spilker at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California: "Finding temperatures near these three inactive fractures that are unexpectedly higher than those outside them adds to the intrigue of Enceladus. What is the warm underground ocean really like and could life have evolved there? These questions remain to be answered by future missions to this ocean world."
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| Tiger stripes on the south pole of Enceladus. The region studied is indicated by the coloured band. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute; Acknowledgement: A. Lucas |
For more information about this study visit ESA, the European Space Agency, at:
Sources: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
