The James Webb Space Telescope has detected a 6,000-mile-long plume of water pouring into space from Saturn’s icy little moon Enceladus, creating a massive cloud of water in the ringed planet’s orbit.
Saturnmoon Enceladus This is one of the most likely places to be at Solar system that might support extraterrestrial life. new The James Webb Space Telescope JWST’s records show that the Large Telescope can play a role in helping scientists decide how best to look for it.
led by NASA Cassini Mission Plumes of water were seen on Enceladus in 2005 during a series of close flights. But at the time, scientists had only a limited understanding of how powerful these geysers really were. Now, JWST has allowed scientists to look back at these jets of water and examine their composition. “With the James Webb telescope, we can measure water from afar and see the entire landscape for the first time,” Geronimo Villanueva of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author of the study told Space.com.
Related: Enceladus: Everything you need to know about Saturn’s bright, icy moon
Webb’s measurements revealed that Enceladus’ 300-mile-wide (500-kilometer) jet of water was flowing at 79 gallons (360 liters) per second, NASA said in a statement. statementfast enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool with water in two hours.
Although scientists had hoped to detect water on Enceladus, Webb’s first observations of the moon came as a surprise.
“When we were planning, we thought we’d see a little bit of water near the surface,” Villanueva said. “We never expected this kind of water emission.”
Measurements reveal that, despite its small size, Enceladus has a significant impact on the environment around the gas giant that orbits it in less than two days. Geysers create large clouds of water behind Saturn’s moon and spread over the other planet’s moons. Data analysis revealed that only 30% of the water that formed the donut-shaped water cloud remains. The rest, about 70%, is scattered throughout the Saturn system and beyond, according to NASA.
Scientists are now curious about what could spread across the solar system with these powerful bursts. Analysis of previous Cassini data found particles in Enceladus’ plume that may be signs of life, such as methanecarbon, oxygen and phosphorus. Scientists believe that the young moon had all the prerequisites for the emergence of simple life forms, as its liquid ocean lies between a thick icy crust and a rocky core which provides a source of nutrition.
The moon’s proximity to Saturn also means that its core is subject to massive gravitational forces that tend to generate heat within the moon and with it, possibly, chemical reactions that could have aided the emergence of microorganisms.
However, Villanueva said Webb found no traces of these molecules during his first look at the fascinating world of water.
“We didn’t see it in these measurements, but we hope that if there is something, we can detect it in the future,” said Villanueva.
2023-06-01 13:11:58
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