Enceladus Archives

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 […]

(A) Schematic of assumptions concerning the outer layers of Enceladus, where H2 (and other solutes) and H2O erupt from the subsurface ocean as a plume of gas. As solutes and H2O vaporize and travel through the tiger stripes, H2O condenses onto the surrounding ice shell as it travels outward, enriching the plume in solutes. Once out of the ice shell conduit, the ratio of solutes to H2O remains the same as the gases expand into the vacuum of space and are detected by Cassini’s INMS. (B) Calculated log aqueous activities (at 273.15 K) of constrained species, resulting from the process illustrated in the left panel using data from Table 1, are displayed as functions of tiger-stripe temperatures. The dashed curve represents a hypothetical organic molecule detected at 1 ppm in the plume gas and then converted into log aqueous activity. -- chemrxiv.org

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Distinguishing Potential Organic Biosignatures on Ocean Worlds from Abiotic Geochemical Products using Thermodynamic Calculations

by Keith CowingMay 9, 2024May 9, 2024

The search for life in our solar system often involves efforts to detect organic molecules, which have been found on many extraterrestrial bodies, including planets, moons, meteorites, comets, and asteroids. […]

Illustration of the tidal action between a planet (Saturn) and its moon (Enceladus). Enceladus moves on a synchronized elliptical orbit, which makes its instantaneous orbital speed vary. At its closest point to Saturn, Enceladus rotates slower than it orbits, so the raised tide lies slightly behind the Enceladus-Saturn (dashed) line in the direction of Enceladus’s rotation. At its most distant point to Saturn, the opposite is true. As a result, the raised tide performs tiny oscillations called librations. -- astro-ph.EP

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Enceladus, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mimas, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Simplified Model for the Forced Libration of Icy Moons with Subsurface Oceans: Application to Enceladus and Mimas

by Keith CowingMay 7, 2024May 7, 2024

In this work, we investigate a minimalist model capable of accurately replicating the forced librations of an icy moon with a subsurface ocean.

Possible relationship between strike-slip motion and jet activity at Enceladus. Lateral extension along transtensional "pull-apart zones" allows water to rise and feed material to cryovolcanic jets. Credit: James Tuttle Keane

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Water Plumes On Enceladus Caused By Strike–Slip Motion

by Keith CowingMay 1, 2024May 1, 2024

Over the course of its elliptical orbit, the moon Enceladus is squeezed unevenly by Saturn’s gravitational pull and deforms from a spherical shape into a football shape and back again. […]

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Callisto, Enceladus, Europa, Exploration Gear & Tech, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Io, Jupiter, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release

Astrobiology Recon Missions: Using Ice-penetrating Radar To Find Liquid Water On Other Worlds

by Keith CowingApril 19, 2024April 19, 2024

The first clue for finding life on other planets is finding liquid water. The moons of Saturn and Jupiter like Enceladus, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto are suspected of holding oceans […]

WATSON Testing Setup at Greenland's Summit Station NASA ID: PIA24169 Date Created:2021-04-07 larger image

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors

Away Team Field Test Of WATSON Biosignature Tricorder In Greenland

by Keith CowingApril 11, 2024April 11, 2024

During 2019 field tests near Greenland’s Summit Station, a high-elevation remote observing station, the WATSON (Wireline Analysis Tool for the Subsurface Observation of Northern ice sheets) instrument is put through […]

Sizes and densities of potential icy ocean worlds, compared to the Earth (image source: NASA).

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Missions & Hardware, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Icy Ocean Worlds, Plumes, And Tasting The Water

by Keith CowingMarch 27, 2024March 27, 2024

This paper considers how space missions that fly through the plumes known, or suspected, to erupt naturally from some icy ocean worlds (IOW), such as Enceladus, or that aim to […]

Enceladus

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

Distinguishing Potential Organic Biosignatures on Ocean Worlds from Abiotic Geochemical Products using Thermodynamic Calculations

A Simplified Model for the Forced Libration of Icy Moons with Subsurface Oceans: Application to Enceladus and Mimas

Water Plumes On Enceladus Caused By Strike–Slip Motion

Astrobiology Recon Missions: Using Ice-penetrating Radar To Find Liquid Water On Other Worlds

Away Team Field Test Of WATSON Biosignature Tricorder In Greenland

Icy Ocean Worlds, Plumes, And Tasting The Water

Relevance of the Avalon Assemblage as an Astrobiological Analog for Icy Ocean Worlds

The Climate and Potential Habitability of a Warm and Oxygenated Mars

Variable X-ray flux May Explain Variable Helium Escape From The Habitable-zone Exoplanet LHS 1140b

Spacetime Contactability in Galactic Civilization Networks: Contact Counts and Percolation

Surprisingly Enriched CO and CH4 in Halley-type Comet 13P/Olbers: Clues to Its Interstellar Heritage