Strengths and Weaknesses of Enceladus Plume Models

Details Strengths and Weaknesses of Enceladus Plume Models Strengths and Weaknesses of Enceladus Plume Models

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.6401s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #64.01

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Strong constraints on the source region and eruption mechanism for Enceladus' plumes come from Cassini's Imaging System, Cosmic Dust Analyser, Imaging UV Spectrometer, Composite IR Spectrometer, Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer plus groundbased high-resolution spectroscopy. It is not surprising, given this wealth of diverse information, that it has proven difficult so far to identify a model of the source region and eruption mechanism which together successfully match all the data. To date there are five distinct models and many plausible combinations or intermediate cases. These include the eruption of near-surface geysers (Porco et al., Science 311, 1393-1401, 2006), clathrate decomposition (Kieffer et al., Science 314, 1764-1766, 2006) and shear heating (Nimmo et al., Nature 447, 289-291, 2007), "deep misty caverns" (Postberg et al., Nature 459, 1098-1101, 2009) and others not formally described in publications. In this presentation we will highlight the differences between these models, and describe their strengths and weaknesses in terms of matching observations, breadth of physics incorporated and geophysical plausibility. We will also discuss the broader implications of each scenario, including their astrobiogical potential, and draw attention to upcoming observations which may help resolve the debate
This work has been supported by NSF's Planetary Astronomy program.

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