Ice Fountains Discovered on Saturns Enceladus

[Don G]

The old ice in Saturn's rings is old ice, becoming newer as the rings grow more distant from the planet. Enceladus seems to be erupting ice which is, most likely, being picked up by Saturn to form the outer rings. Question: If Enceladus has been erupting ice for hundreds of thousands of years, is it growing smaller? If not, where is the ice (water) coming from? Is water being created on (inside) Enceladus?

[astroton]

Good Question Don. Here are two links...

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006 ... eladus.htm

It all depends on how the moon is structured internally and what the core is made of and how active it is. If it has continuously been losing water, it should have either reduced in size. If the base is weak or dead, it should show features similar to mercury.

Do you have a link which shows or discusses, saturnian rings picking up this water / ice?

All in all, dunno.

[astroton]

This might seem like a crazy idea but,

I wish if it was possible to disturb Saturn’s rings externally, in such a way that gravity takes over and the failed moon of the planet actually takes shape? That is turning rings into the moon? I believe there are some larger chunks in the rings.

I do understand that Saturn’s tidal forces, likely, didn’t allow the moon to take shape. But, watching a live planet formation would be a great sight.


http://teacher.scholastic.com/researcht ... saturn.htm

http://www.slate.com/id/2103712

http://www.planetary.org/saturn/rings.html

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/s ... 41116.html

http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encycloped ... te%20Rings

[harry]

Hello astroton

Thank you for the links


Have you read through the link
http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encycloped ... te%20Rings


Its full of BS.

But! I did come across this link that maybe of interest
http://public.lanl.gov/alp/plasma/papers.html

[Don G]

Actually, I watched a tv program on PBS's NOVA series about the Cassini/Huygens mission.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/titan/about.html
This program discussed the determination of the age of the rings around Saturn and the facts regarding Enceladus and the water/ice emissions. The idea of Saturn rings picking up the ice from Enceladus is not really mentioned in the program. That's just an idea that seems obvious to me, as a non-expert.

Thanks for all the new links. I'll be busy today.

[kovil]

Harry,

The plasma papers link is spectacular !!
Thanks very much Harry, you are the king of the links !!
, it will keep me busy reading.
Anthony L Peratt sure is a busy fellow.
Printed out 5 papers in 64 pages !

Enceladus is, to me, adding to the rings as it loses mass by the ice fountains. It is so big it will take a long time to lose itself into making rings! If all the ring material is 'swept up' it wouldn't make a very big ball (would it?). So Enceladus is possibly the supply culpret in their creation, along with the earlier moon that was tidally pulverized.

Right ! as Enceladus' orbit decays, the tidal forces increase, and that is progenitor of the ice fountains. And so lately, last few 100,000 years, the outer rings have been forming from the ejected ice material. As the orbit decays more, look for fountain activity to increase.

Or would this be going the other way; like it is with our moon, Enceladous is moving further away from Saturn over time, as internal angular momentum losses by friction cause the orbit radius to increase ?
Or would that be Saturnian internal frictional losses cause Encaledus' orbit radius to increase ? Talk about action at a distance !

Sure would be interesting to see a time lapse film about 5 billion years of galactic evolution in an hour and a half ! And have it real footage !!

Kovil