How Enceladus' ocean spray becomes chemically diverse ice grains
Saturn's icy moon Enceladus hides a global ocean beneath its frozen surface.
Saturn's icy moon Enceladus hides a global ocean beneath its frozen surface.
The short version
- From fractures near its south pole, material from this ocean is ejected into space as a plume of water vapor and ice particles.
- These particles offer scientists a rare opportunity to investigate an extraterrestrial ocean without drilling through kilometers of ice.
- This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies .
What happened
Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Saturn's icy moon Enceladus hides a global ocean beneath its frozen surface. The research is published in the journal Science Advances .
Why it matters
From 2004 to 2017, the Cosmic Dust Analyzer aboard the Cassini spacecraft measured the composition of individual ice grains in Saturn's E-ring, which is supplied by material ejected from Enceladus.
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