Vast Ocean Underlies Ice on Saturn's Moon Enceladus

so now we know why Enceldus has a faint but observable tail....

and another water moon in our solar system.

originally posted by: xoenneox

originally posted by: rossacus
a reply to: stormcell

One question ....how does the sun have magnetic fields if it doesn't have heavier elements like nickel to create the magnetic fields we have on earth?

...Sun may be older, than we think...they say, there's no way, that there's iron etc..but...

That's a big topic, but basically:

The first process, called the Local Dynamo, has to do with the generation of the small-scale magnetic features on the surface. These are produced by the flows of charged particles in the convecting 'granulation' regions that pock-mark the entire solar surface and create what astronomers call a 'magnetic carpet'.

The Global Dynamo, on the other hand, involves the generation and evolution of the largest features of the sun, such as sunspots, the overall magnetic polarity of the sun, and its long-term changes over the solar activity cycle.

Recent observations of the sun with the SOHO satellite have established the profiles of the flows in the solar interior. In a remarkable study of the 'seismic' properties of the solar surface, astronomers can peer into the interior of the sun just as geologists do with Earth. Just as for Earth's atmosphere, the sun has 'jet streams' and other persistent features. More importantly, the Radiative and Convective Zones can be easily studied in detail. Amazingly enough, although surface gases rotate faster at the equator than at the poles in the Convective Zone (called differential rotation), in the Radiative Zone the gases all rotate in-step as though the sun were a solid body!

Here's the source for more Nasa

So yeah, it's a bit complicated to awnser. We know that the Earth Core is liquid iron because, it's one of the most abundant materials on earth and extreme pressures will melt materials.

a reply to: Astyanax

Which one is more promising for life? Europe or Enceladus?

a reply to: Frocharocha


Well the obviousness of my initial theory has been confirmed. Encaladus is tidally affected by Saturns massive gravity, thus cracking its icy surface and squeezing it like a lemon with a hint of lemon essence flying into space. Over and over again!

a reply to: Frocharocha

Its probably likely you will find at least microbes there. When the solar system was forming billions of years ago,the early microbe laden Earth got blasted enough that debris in large quantities got mixed into the solar nebula, probably some of it was frozen water mixed with rock, I am not sure of the orbital mechanics, but if some of that material got out to the outer solar system and landed on say, Enceladus, our distant cousins could have gotten a foothold there. Or Enceladus and other bodies started to spawn life, they got clobbered, and some of that material fell into the inner solar system, landing on Earth, and resulting in us.

Enceladus is my favorite moon!

How do they detect water beneath the surface? There were serveral flybys by the cassini probe. "Hot" water plumes were detected:



The last and closest flybys will be at 2015-10-14 with a distance of 1839 Kilometers and at 2015-10-28 with a distance of only - 39 km - ! This risky manoveur shows how interesting this moon is. But after all, the cassini mission is coming to an end soon.

For future missions beneath the surface, at the DLR in germany engineers are testing a ice melting probe already. Maybe when i am an old man they will go for an attempt to go beneath the surface. I hope. (:

Look here for the icemole prototype:

Searching for life in the depths of Enceladus

originally posted by: MeanMinistry
Enceladus is my favorite moon!

How do they detect water beneath the surface? There were serveral flybys by the cassini probe. "Hot" water plumes were detected:

You know, I always think how much mass is lost this way...