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Here's the paper mentioned in the article ... Cassini finds molecular hydrogen in the Enceladus plume: Evidence for hydrothermal processes > Saturn's moon Enc
by _rpd 10y ago
Here's the paper mentioned in the article ...
Cassini finds molecular hydrogen in the Enceladus plume: Evidence for hydrothermal processes
> Saturn's moon Enceladus has a subsurface ocean covered by a layer of ice. Some liquid escapes into space through cracks in the ice, which is the source of one of Saturn's rings. In October 2015, the Cassini spacecraft flew directly through the plume of escaping material and sampled its chemical composition. Waite et al. found that the plume contains molecular hydrogen, H2, a sign that the water in Enceladus' ocean is reacting with rocks through hydrothermal processes (see the Perspective by Seewald). This drives the ocean out of chemical equilibrium, in a similar way to water around Earth's hydrothermal vents, potentially providing a source of chemical energy.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6334/155 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6334/155
- shrimp_emoji 10y agoA way to remember it is that Enceladus is the snowball with the blue "tiger stripes" on the south pole (grooved vents through which shoot streams of ice crystals [driven by tidal heating along its orbit around Saturn]).
- grasshopperpurp 10y agoBeautiful image.