The analysis of micrometer-sized ice grains emitted into space by Saturn’s moon Enceladus suggests that the moon’s subsurface ocean may be habitable. However, the formation conditions of these ice grains […]
Enceladus exhibits some remarkable phenomena, including water geysers spraying through surface cracks, a global ice shell that is librating atop an ocean, a large luminosity, and rapid outward orbital migration.
We report observations of stripe-like features in Enceladus’ plumes captured simultaneously by Cassini’s VIMS-IR and ISS NAC instruments during flyby E17, with similar patterns seen in VIMS-IR data from flyby […]
There are some traces of the existence of internal ocean in some icy moons, such as the vapor plumes of Europa and Enceladus. This implies a region of liquid water […]
Fractures and vents in the ice crust of Europa, exposing the sub-surface ocean to the vacuum, might be responsible for the generation of planetary-scale water-vapor plumes.
Scientists based this image on a model of data from NASA’s Galileo mission and data from an instrument on NASA’s Cassini mission that studied warm regions of Saturn’s moon Enceladus […]
Two Southwest Research Institute instruments were launched aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft on Oct. 14 from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft is designed to conduct a detailed reconnaissance […]
We present near-infrared high-dispersion spectroscopic observations of Europa using the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS) onboard the Subaru Telescope, seeking direct evidence of water plumes on Europa and exploring spatial […]
The surface of Uranus’ moon Ariel is coated with a significant amount of carbon dioxide ice, especially on its “trailing hemisphere” that always faces away from the moon’s direction of […]
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 […]
