Liquid water on Enceladus from observations of ammonia and 40Ar in the plume

Details Liquid water on Enceladus from observations of ammonia and 40Ar in the plume Liquid water on Enceladus from observations of ammonia and 40Ar in the plume

Jul 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009natur.460..487w&link_type=abstract

Nature, Volume 460, Issue 7254, pp. 487-490 (2009).

Mathematics

Logic

69

Scientific paper

Jets of water ice from surface fractures near the south pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus produce a plume of gas and particles. The source of the jets may be a liquid water region under the ice shell-as suggested most recently by the discovery of salts in E-ring particles derived from the plume-or warm ice that is heated, causing dissociation of clathrate hydrates. Here we report that ammonia is present in the plume, along with various organic compounds, deuterium and, very probably, 40Ar. The presence of ammonia provides strong evidence for the existence of at least some liquid water, given that temperatures in excess of 180K have been measured near the fractures from which the jets emanate. We conclude, from the overall composition of the material, that the plume derives from both a liquid reservoir (or from ice that in recent geological time has been in contact with such a reservoir) as well as from degassing, volatile-charged ice.

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