The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted a 6,000 mile-long plume of frozen water erupting from vast crevasses in the surface of the Saturnian moon Enceladus.
“When I was looking at the data, at first, I was thinking I had to be wrong. It was just so shocking to detect a water plume more than 20 times the size of the moon,” explained Geronimo Villanueva of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, lead author of a new paper describing the event, which is set to be published in the journal Nature Astronomy. “The water plume extends far beyond its release region at the southern pole.”
Scientists believe that the vast mass of water is being drawn through cracks known as "Tiger Stripes" in Enceladus’ miles-thick icy shell, from the global subsurface ocean that is theorised to exist beneath.
Despite measuring 313 miles across, Enceladus appears as little more than a pixel in the new JWST image (above), and is dwarfed by the colossal plume of frozen material issuing forth from the moon, which scientists estimate is thought to be pouring into space at the staggering rate of 79 gallons per second.
Enceladus treads a relatively tight orbit around Saturn, which allows it to complete a full rotation once every 33 hours. As it travels along its circular path, the plume moves away from the moon, forming a doughnut-shaped cloud of water ice in Enceladus’ wake, which is known as a "torus." It is estimated that around 30% of the water mass remains in this halo, while the rest travels outward into the Saturnian system.
“Right now, Webb provides a unique way to directly measure how water evolves and changes over time across Enceladus' immense plume, and as we see here, we will even make new discoveries and learn more about the composition of the underlying ocean,” said NASA Goddard’s Stefanie Milam, a co-author of the new paper. “Because of Webb’s wavelength coverage and sensitivity, and what we’ve learned from previous missions, we have an entire new window of opportunity in front of us.”
The global ocean moons of Saturn and Jupiter are considered to be amongst the most promising places to find extraterrestrial life in our solar system. The JWST is scheduled to capture more data on the plume next year, at which point it will also study the chemical elements on Enceladus’ surface, in an attempt to shed further light on the habitability of the alien world.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
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2023-06-01 17:29:47Z
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