Salt water caverns may be 'beneath surface of Saturn moon

Salt water caverns may be 'beneath surface of Saturn moon

www.telegraph .co.uk

The evidence comes from the discovery of seawater salt in ice grains forming Saturn's outermost ring.

Scientists know the "E-ring" is replenished by jets of water and ice spurting hundreds of miles into space from Saturn's sixth largest moon, Enceladus.

The geyser-like plumes erupt from fracture lines known as "tiger stripes" that slice across the moon's south pole.

The new findings suggest the jets originate from a liquid underground source, either a global salty ocean...

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...or - more likely - deep cavern reservoirs.

They also indicate that the water, warmed by tidal forces from Saturn's powerful gravity, could be as salty as the Earth's oceans and not too acidic for life. Organic chemicals have also been detected in the plumes.

Together, the results point to an environment that at least offers the possibility of a place where life could dwell.

The icy grains forming Saturn's E-ring were studied by a European instrument on the American space agency Nasa's Cassini spacecraft.

Cassini first detected the Enceladus water jets in July 2005.

A team led by Dr Frank Postberg, from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, wrote in the journal Nature: "Alkaline salt water, together with the observed organic compounds and the thermal energy obviously present in the south polar region, could provide an environment well suited for the formation of life precursors."

Cassini's Cosmic Dust Analyser instrument found that about 6% of the grains forming the E-ring were rich in sodium salts. This could only have arisen if the plumes feeding the ring originated from salty water, said the scientists.

The picture is complicated by separate ground-based observations, also reported in Nature, showing no sign of sodium in the plumes themselves.

But this would not be surprising if the salty water was evaporating slowly in pressurised underground chambers rather than explosively in a vacuum, say the scientists.

Dr Postberg said: "The original picture of the plumes as violently erupting Yellowstone-like geysers is changing. They seem more like steady jets of vapour and ice fed by a large water reservoir. However, we can't decide yet if the water is currently 'trapped' within huge pockets in Enceladus' thick crust ice or still connected to a large ocean in contact with the rocky core."

Further data from Enceladus is expected to come from two more Cassini flybys in November.

Commenting on the research in Nature, US planetary scientist Dr John Spencer, from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, wrote: "Many more discoveries are.. likely, and with each Enceladus becomes more exotic.

"Our picture of its subsurface must now be expanded to include the possibility of misty ice caverns floored with pools and channels of salty water, lurking beneath the tiger stripes. What else may lurk in those salty pools, if they exist, remains to be seen."


Have checked ATS and cannot find this already being discussed so thought I'd share.

The bit that seems interesting is "Organic chemicals have also been detected in the plumes".

Hope you enjoy !

Kind regards,

www.telegraph .co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Very interesting considering Iapetus, one of Saturn's other moons, which is clearly an artificial satellite. This could be a massive breakthrough in ET presence/information. Though NASA would lie through it's teeth to cover it up . Anyway, S&F for you sir.

reply to post by AboveGeneric


Could you please post the evidence that one of Saturns moons is an artificial satellite.

It's so frustrating to see how our scientific community takes tiny baby steps in assembling our knowledge of our own solar system.

I sometimes find it hard to believe that the Brookings Institute's admonitions about not telling the world about possible extraterrestrial life could lead to such a phobia about microbes or lower life forms living on other planets.

Let's face it, if life can manifest itself in any physical environment - it eventually will.

The future prosperity of mankind depends greatly on overcoming the inertia of established institutions who are not prepared to deal with the eventuality and would rather put blinders on than face the issue directly.

Great find..., very encouraging. Now if we can just get them to admit that there is no reason life can't exist elsewhere... then we would be getting somewhere....

reply to post by RedGolem


Dont be silly,there is no evidence anyway,good news..but it begs the question.How on earth did they *just* find this out? I know NASA cant release everything they find as they have to go through contractors first...but one would think they would have noticed this a while ago.no?

reply to post by RedGolem


There is no official "source" for such a claim, mind you the evidence is kind of mind blowing if you dig deep into it.

I suggest you just google it and I am sure you'll get taken to a website full of that information. Also here on ATS, I think there's a thread present.

~Keeper

Originally posted by RedGolem
reply to post by AboveGeneric

 

Could you please post the evidence that one of Saturns moons is an artificial satellite.

Oh there's absolutely no proof it's just a theory. Sorry haha, but if you google it you'll find some websites.. here's the one I found most interesting. www.enterprisemission.com...

Wow, obviously a lot of speculating but the guy is right that the odds of all those things happening to one seemingly insignificant satellite is impossible.