Word: enceladus
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...This will be our closest flyby yet," says NASA scientist Candice Hansen-Koharcheck. "We knew that Enceladus was a very interesting target, but we had no idea that we would find the kind of activity that we found - water just spewing out of the south pole...
Cassini will be 120 miles from the small moon's icy surface when it passes through the edge of the geysers. Future flybys will get as close as 16 miles from the surface of Enceladus - and 100 miles from the surface while passing through the plumes - but in this first close approach, scientists decided to proceed with caution. "We concluded that there really wasn't any point to push it on this flyby, especially considering that we've got seven more coming up in the next couple of years," says Cassini program manager Bob Mitchell...
...collecting particles from the plumes of gas and water vapor bursting out of Enceladus at approximately 800 miles per hour, scientists hope to better understand the composition of the moon's surface in contrast to its interior - scientists believe that some of the plumes' water-ice particles emerge from within the moon and some bounce off its surface. Scientists also want to know whether there is any liquid water - an essential component to supporting life - below the moon's iced surface. "The thing that makes Enceladus so exciting is that all of the ingredients you would need to support life...
...contribute to the large rings around Saturn. "It's like the steam coming out of your kettle," Hansen-Koharcheck says. By analyzing the molecular structure of these particles, scientists hope to determine whether the vapor originates as ice or liquid, and whether that means there could be life in Enceladus's interior, beneath the surface...
Scientists hope that clearer data will reveal information about why the geysers formed. The leading theory is that Saturn's gravitational pull puts stresses on the moon, causing the fissures from which the plumes erupt. "Enceladus' orbit around Saturn is eccentric," Mitchell says. It's just enough off of circular that the effect of gravity on the moon is different from one point to another, and different from the planet's other moons. "That difference in the tug would be enough to cause the body to distort differently as it goes around Saturn." The friction created when sides...