Written in SCIENCE he
A “water vapor plume” was located in the Saturn’s moon Enceladusthe peculiar fact was detected by researchers through the James Webb Space Telescope of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (POT for its acronym in English).
The mapped ejecta extends for 6 thousand miles (10 thousand kilometers) which represents the distance between Los Angeles, California and Buenos Aires, Argentina; this type of long-distance ejection is the first to be captured and gives scientists a glimpse into how such an emission provides water to the entire system Saturn and its rings.
“When I looked at the data, at first, I thought I had to be wrong. It was so shocking to detect a column of water more than 20 times the size of the moon,” said Geronimo Villanueva of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The POT He explained that, on other occasions, the observatories have been able to map jets hundreds of kilometers from the surface of the moon; however, with the precision of the webb telescopea “water column extending well beyond its release region at the south pole” could be documented.
For the researchers, another of the main findings of the event is the speed at which the water vapor shoots up, emitting 79 gallons per second. As an example, the International Agency indicated that with the emission rate an Olympic-sized pool could be filled. in a couple of hours, while doing the same thing with a garden hose would take more than two weeks.
“Enceladus’ orbit around Saturn is relatively fast, just 33 hours. As it orbits Saturn, the moon and its jets basically spit out water, leaving a halo, almost doughnut-like, in its wake (…) In Webb’s observations, not only was the plume enormous, but there were water absolutely everywhere”, indicated the scientist Villanueva.
In a statement, NASA noted that with Webb’s data, astronomers pinpointed that approximately 30% of the water remains within this torus, and the other 70% escapes to supply the rest of Saturn’s water system.
Why is Saturn’s moon so important?
Enceladus, has a peculiar characteristic, it is a ocean world about 4% of the size of the Land, with 503 kilometers in diameter. The scientific interest in this body is due to the search for life beyond earthbeing water one of the main objectives to find it.
Among the moon’s properties are an icy outer crust and rocky core with a global reservoir of salty water. The moon has geyser-like volcanoes that spew streams of ice particles, water vapor and organic chemicals from cracks in the moon’s surface informally called “tiger stripes.”
The Webb findings will allow future satellite missions to explain the depth of the subterranean ocean and the thickness of the ice crust, NASA said.