APOD: Enceladus Venting (2009 Nov 24)

[neufer]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091124.html

Giotto's encounter with Halley's comet

Giotto's HMC images of Halley's comet, captured on March 13 and 14, 1986, were complicated by the fact that its camera was a line-scanning or "pushbroom" instrument, while the spacecraft rotated. Near closest approach, the spacecraft took 74-pixel-wide images in rapid succession until the spacecraft suffered too much damage from Halley's debris. Credit: ESA / Giotto project, H. U. Keller / animation by Daniel Macháček / stabilized by Gordan Ugarkovic

[orin stepanek]

I'm thinking there's a probability of volcanic activity underneath; maybe warming some oceans and creating the iceplumes.

Orin

[Case]

If the venting process has been going for a very long time, then wouldn't it been done venting all there is to vent by now?

[neufer]

If the venting process has been going for a very long time, then wouldn't it been done venting all there is to vent by now?

I haven't been able to invent a way to circumvent all solvents to prevent the advent of all terminal events so I may join a convent.

[bystander]

Icy Saturn Moon Burps Up Heat and Ice
Space.com - 2010 Feb 02

The icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus appears to occasionally belch up blobs of warm ice, findings that help explain the mysterious heat seen there, scientists now suggest.

[neufer]

Icy Saturn Moon Burps Up Heat and Ice [Space.com - 2010 Feb 02]

<<The icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus appears to occasionally belch up blobs of warm ice,
findings that help explain the mysterious heat seen there, scientists now suggest.>>

<<During the battle between the Gigantes and the Olympian gods, Enceladus was disabled by a spear thrown by the goddess Athena. He was buried on the island of Sicily, under Mount Etna. The volcanic fires of Etna were said to be the breath of Enceladus, and its tremors to be caused by him rolling his injured side beneath the mountain.


At Versailles, Louis XIV's consistent iconographic theme of the triumphs of Apollo and the Olympians against all adversaries included the fountain of Enceladus in its own cabinet de verdure, which was cut into the surrounding woodland and outlined by trelliswork,; the ensemble has recently been restored. According to an engraving of the fountain by Le Pautre (1677), the sculptor of the gilt-bronze Enceladus was Gaspar Mercy of Cambrai.>>

[RussellTavares]

I'm thinking there's a probability of volcanic activity underneath; maybe warming some oceans and creating the iceplumes.

Orin

Out of interest why do you think that?

[orin stepanek]

I'm thinking there's a probability of volcanic activity underneath; maybe warming some oceans and creating the iceplumes.

Orin

Out of interest why do you think that?

Was just a thought; there must be some source of heat. Do you know what else may cause the plumes?

[bystander]

Was just a thought; there must be some source of heat. Do you know what else may cause the plumes?

Radioactive decay and Tidal warming are the explanations I've seen. It seems both are required because neither by themselves are enough to explain the liquid water beneath the surface.