Enceladus

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Enceladus

Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn and the 18th largest in the Solar System. It is about 500 kilometres (310 miles) in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. It is covered by clean, freshly deposited snow hundreds of meters thick, making it one of the most reflective bodies of the Solar System. Consequently, its surface temperature at noon reaches only −198 °C (75.1 K; −324.4 °F), far colder than a light-absorbing body would be. Despite its small size, Enceladus has a wide variety of surface features, ranging from old, heavily cratered regions to young, tectonically deformed terrain. Enceladus was discovered on August 28, 1789, by William Herschel, but little was known about it until the two Voyager spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, flew by Saturn in 1980 and 1981. In 2005, the spacecraft Cassini started multiple close flybys of Enceladus, revealing its surface and environment in greater detail. In particular, Cassini discovered water-rich plumes venting from the south polar region. Cryovolcanoes near the south pole shoot geyser-like jets of water vapour, molecular hydrogen, other volatiles, and solid material, including sodium chloride crystals and ice particles, into space, totalling about 200 kilograms (440 pounds) per second. More than 100 geysers have been identified. Some of the water vapour falls back as snow, now several hundred metres thick; the rest escapes and supplies most of the material making up Saturn's E ring. According to NASA scientists, the plumes are similar in composition to comets. In 2014, NASA reported that Cassini had found evidence for a large south polar subsurface ocean of liquid water with a thickness of around 10 km (6 mi). The existence of Enceladus's subsurface ocean has since been mathematically modelled and replicated. These observations of active cryoeruptions, along with the finding of escaping internal heat and very few (if any) impact craters in the south polar region, show that Enceladus is currently geologically active. Like many other satellites in the extensive systems of the giant planets, Enceladus participates in an orbital resonance. Its resonance with Dione excites its orbital eccentricity, which is damped by tidal forces, tidally heating its interior and driving the geological activity. Cassini performed chemical analysis of Enceladus's plumes, finding evidence for hydrothermal activity, possibly driving complex chemistry. Still-ongoing research suggests that Enceladus's hydrothermal environment could be habitable to some of Earth's hydrothermal vent microorganisms, and that plume-found methane could be produced by such organisms.

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• Enceladus - Wikipedia

  Enceladus was discovered by William Herschel on August 28, 1789, during the first use of his new 1.2 m (47 in) 40-foot telescope, then the largest in the world, at Observatory House in Slough, England. Its faint apparent magnitude (HV = +11.7) and its proximity to the much brighter Saturn and Saturn's rings make Enceladus difficult to observe from Earth with smaller telescopes. Like many satellites of Saturn discovered prior to the Space Age, Enceladus was first observed during a Saturnian equinox, when Earth is within the ring plane. At such times, the reduction in glare from the rings makes the moons easier to observe. Prior to the Voyager missions the view of Enceladus improved little from the dot first observed by Herschel. Only its orbital characteristics were known, with estimations [...] ### Naming Enceladus is named after the giant Enceladus "Enceladus (giant)") of Greek mythology. The name, like the names of each of the first seven satellites of Saturn to be discovered, was suggested by William Herschel's son John Herschel in his 1847 publication Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope. He chose these names because Saturn "Saturn (mythology)"), known in Greek mythology as Cronus, was the leader of the Titans "Titan (mythology)").[citation needed] [...] Enceladus is currently in a 2:1 mean-motion orbital resonance with Dione "Dione (moon)"), completing two orbits around Saturn for every one orbit completed by Dione. This resonance maintains Enceladus's orbital eccentricity (0.0047), which is known as a forced eccentricity. This non-zero eccentricity results in tidal deformation of Enceladus. The dissipated heat resulting from this deformation is the main heating source for Enceladus's geologic activity. Enceladus orbits within the densest part of Saturn's E ring, the outermost of its major rings, and is the main source of the ring's material composition.

• Enceladus - NASA Science

  Cassini revealed the dramatic truth: Enceladus is an active moon that hides a global ocean of liquid salty water beneath its crust. What’s more, jets of icy particles from that ocean, laced with a brew of water and simple organic chemicals, gush out into space continuously from this fascinating ocean world. The material shoots out at about 800 miles per hour (400 meters per second) and forms a plume that extends hundreds of miles into space. Some of the material falls back onto Enceladus, and some escapes to form Saturn’s vast E ring.

• Enceladus (moon) | Astronomy and Astrophysics | Research Starters | EBSCOhost

  Publication Type: Periodical ## Full Article Enceladus is the brightest of the satellites located within the rings of Saturn. It has much in common with what scientists expected to find on comets, especially water ice. However, it appears to have been formed more than four billion years ago as a spinning mass of soft material. ### Overview [...] Enceladus is tidally locked in a synchronous orbit around Saturn, meaning that the hemisphere with the higher density always faces Saturn. Looking into the sky from the Saturn-facing side, the planet would occupy roughly 30° of the sky and appear to be spinning in roughly the same position at all times. From the side hidden from Saturn, the Sun would appear very small, rising and setting in roughly seventeen hours as Enceladus completed half an orbit around Saturn. [...] Enceladus is tidally locked in a synchronous orbit around Saturn, meaning that the hemisphere with the higher density always faces Saturn. Looking into the sky from the Saturn-facing side, the planet would occupy roughly 30° of the sky and appear to be spinning in roughly the same position at all times. From the side hidden from Saturn, the Sun would appear very small, rising and setting in roughly seventeen hours as Enceladus completed half an orbit around Saturn.

• Enceladus — A guide to Saturn's intriguing icy moon | Space

  Illustration of Enceladus' geysers spewing out material (Image credit: MARK GARLICK/SPL via Getty Images) Jump To: Who discovered Enceladus and when? Where did Enceladus get its name? What is Enceladus' surface like? Enceladus key facts Enceladus FAQs answered by an expert Additional resources Bibliography Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Subscribe to our newsletter Enceladus is Saturn's sixth-largest moon and one of the most promising potential sites in the solar system for hosting life. [...] ### Why is Enceladus an interesting target for research? Enceladus is such a small moon, only about 314 miles (504 km) across. I drive more miles when I take a road trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco! Because of its size, it should have lost much of its internal heat and frozen solid long ago, so it is particularly interesting that it is active rather than a cold, dead ball of ice. It turns out that this little moon is kept warm by the tidal forces imparted on it as it orbits Saturn every 33 hours. [...] It orbits Saturn within the planet’s E-ring, and continually spews out a concoction of water and simple organic chemicals into space, at around 800 miles per hour (400 meters per second) forming huge plumes that extend hundreds of miles into space according to NASA. While some of the material falls back to the icy world, some escapes and feeds Saturn's large E ring. Because Enceladus is coated in clean, highly reflective ice, it has the brightest surface of any object in our solar system. However, its surface is not uniform, with some of it being highly cratered and other areas being almost entirely crater-free, according to NASA. Scientists think this points to relatively recent geological processes that enabled Enceladus to renew its surface.

• NASA SVS | The Fountains of Enceladus

  Enceladus, a tiny moon orbiting Saturn, is one of the solar system's most active objects. More than 100 distinct jets of water burst through four massive cracks near the moon's south pole. The water simultaneously freezes and boils when it hits the cold vacuum of space. Hundreds of miles above, the jets merge into a single plume of ice particles. Larger particles fall back, while smaller, faster ones escape to form Saturn’s gossamer E ring. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has snapped hundreds of images of the geysers during several close flybys of Enceladus. Researchers believe gravitational force from Saturn alternately compresses and stretches the moon in its oblong orbit. Models predict this same tidal energy warms a sea of liquid water beneath the ice, providing a source for the geysers and

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