Enceladus Archives

Cartoon illustrating the physical configuration for sustaining a hydrothermal siphon, with primary driving and resistive forces as applied in this study. Terms are discussed in text and combined in Equation 2. ∆Pv (>0) is primary driving energy in simulations, based on differences in temperature and density between recharging and discharging columns of pore fluid. ∆PR, ∆PD, ∆PC, and ∆PL (≤0) are pressure (energy) losses, depending on formation properties and the extent of secondary convection. ∆Psiph is what remains of ∆Pv after accounting for loss terms, available to drive siphon flow. s = sediment/conductive boundary layer, bu = upper rocky layer, ba = aquifer layer. This cartoon neglects other potential driving forces such as tidal pumping and buoyancy generated by exothermic reactions. -- Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Europa, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gravitational Biology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Sustaining Hydrothermal Circulation With Gravity Relevant to Ocean Worlds

by Keith CowingJune 28, 2024June 28, 2024

Some ocean worlds may sustain active, seafloor hydrothermal systems, but the characteristics and controls on fluid-heat transport in these systems are not well understood.

Away Teams & Field Reports, Enceladus, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Panspermia, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Policy, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, Status Report, Titan, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy for Missions to Icy Worlds: A Review of History, Current Scientific Knowledge, And Future Directions

by Keith CowingJune 26, 2024June 26, 2024

Recent discoveries related to the habitability and astrobiological relevance of the outer Solar System have expanded our understanding of where and how life may have originated. As a result, the […]

An artist’s rendition of Saturn’s moon Enceladus depicts hydrothermal activity on the seafloor and cracks in the moon’s icy crust that allow material from the watery interior to be ejected into space. New research shows that instruments destined for the next missions could find traces of a single cell in a single ice grain contained in a plume. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Analog Studies, Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Enceladus, Europa, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Meteorites & Asteroids, Missions & Hardware, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Laboratory Characterization Of Hydrothermally Processed Oligopeptides In Ice Grains Emitted By Enceladus And Europa

by Keith CowingJune 25, 2024June 25, 2024

The Cassini mission provided evidence for a global subsurface ocean and ongoing hydrothermal activity on Enceladus, based on results from Cassini’s mass spectrometers. Laboratory simulations of hydrothermal conditions on icy […]

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Europa, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Hydrothermal Vents On The Seafloors Of Ocean Worlds Could Support Life

by Keith CowingJune 25, 2024June 25, 2024

We’ve all seen the surreal footage in nature documentaries showing hydrothermal vents on the frigid ocean floor—bellowing black plumes of super-hot water—and the life forms that cling to them. Now, […]

Term-map analysis results by VOSviewer depicting three major emerging clusters in astrobiology research with different levels of interconnection among terms. The top 300 linkages are represented. A term’s importance is indicated by the size of the circle. -- Life

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrobiology (general), Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Enceladus, Europa, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Life Support Systems, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Mimas, Missions & Hardware, Origin & Evolution of Life, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Space Life Science, Status Report, Titan, Tricorders & Sensors, Triton, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Marine Science Can Contribute to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life

by Keith CowingJune 9, 2024June 9, 2024

Abstract: Life on our planet likely evolved in the ocean, and thus exo-oceans are key habitats to search for extraterrestrial life. We conducted a data-driven bibliographic survey on the astrobiology […]

Left: Jupiter’s moon Europa and its presumed interior. A thick ice shell covers a planetary saltwater ocean, presumed to hold twice as much water as Earth’s oceans. Right: Simulation of the ocean bending the magnetic field lines emitted by Jupiter that are close to Europa Image credit: C. Cochrane/ NASA/JPL-Caltech

Cryobiology, Enceladus, Europa, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Tricorder Tech: Using Solid State Quantum Magnetometers To Seek Out Water Worlds

by Keith CowingJune 9, 2024June 9, 2024

“Follow the water!” The solar system is full of water in different states, from the Sun’s water vapor to the ice of Pluto and beyond. Water is not only linked […]

Some of the ocean worlds in our solar system -- NASA

Analog Studies, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

NASA Makes Dual Investment in Ocean Worlds Research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

by Keith CowingJune 5, 2024June 5, 2024

(From 2019) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will invest in a major new research program headquartered at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) that pulls together some of […]

Deep Sea Sponge -- Schmidt Ocean Institute

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Missions & Hardware, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Tricorders & Sensors

Expedition To The Atacama Trench: Thinking Ahead To Enceladus and Europa

by Keith CowingMay 27, 2024May 27, 2024

The Atacama in northern Chile is the oldest and driest desert on Earth. While tectonic activity reconfigured the shape and arrangement of land masses over the last 150 million years, […]

Left: Map of the plume’s brightness at 2.70 µm derived from an average of five VIMS cubes (V1511798376, V1511800181, V1511800741, V1511801493, and V1511802247). Note that this brightness is mostly due to reflected sunlight from Enceladus’ lit limb and the plume particles. The image is re-projected on a grid with 19 kilometers per pixel and oriented so that the plume points downward. Right: Map of the water-vapor column density derived from the same averaged image. Column densities were calculated using the average residual values and Equation 1. Note that regions of high column density are visible outside the region where the plume particles are bright, which provides evidence that this signal traces a different plume component. The red circles outline Enceladus and the red rectangles show the pixels used for the spectral analysis -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Enceladus, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Constraining Time Variations in Enceladus’ Water-Vapor Plume With Near-Infrared Spectra from Cassini-VIMS

by Keith CowingMay 14, 2024May 14, 2024

Water vapor produces a series of diagnostic emission lines in the near infrared between 2.60 and 2.75 microns. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard the Cassini spacecraft detected […]

A plume of gas and ice grains emanates from the South Polar Terrain on Enceladus. The plume source is a global ocean of liquid water beneath the moon's icy crust. Plume materials erupt as diffuse “curtains” of water vapor punctured by ∼100 localized “jets” of gas and ice grains primarily 0.1–10 μm in size (Porco et al., 2006; Spitale et al., 2015). Small ice grains escape Enceladus' gravity and populate Saturn's E-ring, but larger, slower grains are ejected to an altitude of 30–50 km and then fall back (Goldstein et al., 2018). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Enceladus: Astrobiology Revisited

by Keith CowingMay 14, 2024May 14, 2024

Astrobiology research seeks to understand how life begins and evolves, and to determine whether life exist elsewhere in the universe. The discovery of diverse ocean worlds has significantly expanded the […]

Enceladus

Sustaining Hydrothermal Circulation With Gravity Relevant to Ocean Worlds

The COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy for Missions to Icy Worlds: A Review of History, Current Scientific Knowledge, And Future Directions

Laboratory Characterization Of Hydrothermally Processed Oligopeptides In Ice Grains Emitted By Enceladus And Europa

Hydrothermal Vents On The Seafloors Of Ocean Worlds Could Support Life

Marine Science Can Contribute to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life

Tricorder Tech: Using Solid State Quantum Magnetometers To Seek Out Water Worlds

NASA Makes Dual Investment in Ocean Worlds Research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Expedition To The Atacama Trench: Thinking Ahead To Enceladus and Europa

Constraining Time Variations in Enceladus’ Water-Vapor Plume With Near-Infrared Spectra from Cassini-VIMS

Enceladus: Astrobiology Revisited

Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 20 Oct 2026: Wheels Down In Cape Town

Astrobiology Primer

The Evolution Of Oxygen, Temperature, And Marine Aerobic Habitat For Animals Over The Last Billion Years Of Earth History

Icy Ocean Planet Recon: Saildrone Research Fleet To Circle Antarctica For 5 Years

Water As We’ve Never Known It: Testing Water Beyond Earth-like Conditions