Cassini Reveals 101 Geysers & More on Icy Saturn Moon

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Cassini Reveals 101 Geysers & More on Icy Saturn Moon

Post by bystander » Tue Jul 29, 2014 4:01 am

Cassini Reveals 101 Geysers & More on Icy Saturn Moon
NASA | JPL-Caltech | Cassini | CICLOPS | 28 July 2014
Click to view full size image 1 or image 2
This view looks across the geyser basin of Saturn's moon Enceladus, along
fractures spewing water vapor and ice particles into space. Cassini scientists
have pinpointed the source locations of about 100 geysers and gained new
insights into what powers them. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)
Scientists using mission data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have identified 101 distinct geysers erupting on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. Their analysis suggests it is possible for liquid water to reach from the moon's underground sea all the way to its surface.

These findings, and clues to what powers the geyser eruptions, are presented in two articles published in the current online edition of the Astronomical Journal.

Over a period of almost seven years, Cassini's cameras surveyed the south polar terrain of the small moon, a unique geological basin renowned for its four prominent "tiger stripe" fractures and the geysers of tiny icy particles and water vapor first sighted there nearly 10 years ago. The result of the survey is a map of 101 geysers, each erupting from one of the tiger stripe fractures, and the discovery that individual geysers are coincident with small hot spots. These relationships pointed the way to the geysers' origin. ...

Additional details, images and an animation are available at: http://www.ciclops.org/view_event/202.

How the Geysers, Tidal Stresses, and Thermal Emission across the South Polar Terrain of Enceladus are Related - Carolyn Porco et al Tidally Modulated Eruptions on Enceladus: Cassini ISS Observations and Models - Francis Nimmo et al
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