Water vapour jets inside the plume of gas leaving Enceladus

C. J. Hansen (), L. W. Esposito, A. I. F. Stewart, B. Meinke, B. Wallis, J. E. Colwell, A. R. Hendrix, K. Larsen, W. Pryor and F. Tian
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C. J. Hansen: Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA
L. W. Esposito: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80303, USA
A. I. F. Stewart: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80303, USA
B. Meinke: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80303, USA
B. Wallis: Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA
J. E. Colwell: Planetary Sciences Group, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA
A. R. Hendrix: Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA
K. Larsen: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80303, USA
W. Pryor: Central Arizona College, Coolidge, Arizona 85228, USA
F. Tian: Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

Nature, 2008, vol. 456, issue 7221, 477-479

Abstract: Saturn's moons: Enceladus by starlight When the Cassini probe flew by Enceladus, Saturn's sixth-largest moon, it detected a plume of water vapour escaping from fissures near the moon's south pole. That was in 2005: the source and nature of the plume are still unclear, but new Cassini data are beginning to narrow down the possibilities. In October 2007 Cassini's ultraviolet imaging spectrograph observed an occultation of a distant star by the plume. Four high-density water vapour jets were detected against the background of the plume, in positions that coincide with those of dust jets seen previously. The jets' density and temperature profiles are consistent with a model in which the source of the plume is liquid water, accelerated to supersonic velocities in nozzle-like channels.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07542

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