Meaning, Enceladus supplies the system with most of its water. The observations Webb beamed back indicate that only about 30 percent of that water stays in the torus, while 70 percent is dispersed throughout the rest of the Saturnian system. It does so especially fast, with the megaplume spraying an astounding 300 liters (79 gallons) every second. Its 33-hour orbit-just 1.37 days on Earth-means that it sprays water vapor widely around Saturn. Webb’s instruments were able to tell that most of the droplets of water from the vapor Enceladus regularly spews out don’t stay within the torus near the moon. It now gives unprecedented insight into how water vapor from emissions like this contributes to the torus and the overall water supply for Saturn and its rings. Webb added to Cassini’s legacy by providing a broader view of the Saturn system. In 2019, further Cassini observations showed the E-Ring was largely formed by water vapor plumes gushing out of Enceladus, which explains why this ring appears fainter and hazier than the others.Ĭassini’s flybys and mass spectrometer also found widespread water vapor throughout the rings of Saturn and its other moons. Though Enceladus was suspected to be geologically active since the Voyagers visited Saturn, NASA researchers analyzing data from the Cassini orbiter and Herschel Observatory first confirmed the existence of geysers in 2005. The halo (or torus) Enceladus leaves in its wake actually creates most of Saturn’s E-ring, which is its largest outermost ring. “This level of activity… establishes Enceladus as a prime source of water across the Saturnian system,” the researchers said in a study accepted for publication in Nature Astronomy. As Enceladus continued to orbit Saturn, this water vapor plume formed a ghostly halo around the planet. It is 20 times the size of Enceladus itself and extends far enough to easily cover the distance from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires. At over 9,500 km (6,000 miles) long, this is the most extensive spray of water ever seen in space. When a team of NASA researchers looked closely at the new JWST data, they realized one plume near the moon’s south pole was far larger than any other. These plumes can extend hundreds of miles from the surface. Plumes of water vapor erupt from Enceladus via cryovolcanoes that form over cracks in the ice. Now NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has caught sight of a plume like no other. And an ocean means it has the potential for life (at least life as we know it). Villanueva reader comments 55 withĮnceladus, a frozen moon orbiting Saturn, has caught the interest of scientists because of the plumes of water vapor that erupt from its icy crust, which are possible evidence for a subsurface ocean.
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