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- A study of the Cassini orbiter’s images of Enceladus has revealed new clues to the ice age in different parts of the moon.
- The moon’s south pole is covered in new ice, which is to be expected, but its northern hemisphere also has young ice, which was a surprise.
- Enceladus is one of the few places in our solar system where extraterrestrial life can exist in some form.
Of all the planets and moons in our solar system, Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus appears to be one of the few that can support life in any way. It has a solid layer of ice, but deep in the ice there is liquid water. We know this because we have seen it emerge from huge cracks in the ice.
Now, researchers using data from NASA’s Cassini space probe have detected what they believe to be the fresh ice signature not only at the moon’s active south pole, but also in the northern hemisphere, which is a finding. new.
The research, which was published in the journal Icarus, uses data from the infrared spectrometer to estimate the age of the ice around the moon. Fresh ice produces a different signature than old ice, and these data allow scientists to have a pretty good idea of when the ice formed.
The first discovery was not surprising: Enceladus’ south pole is absolutely covered in fresh ice. NASA has detected that this is happening, with huge plumes of liquid water pouring out of the crevices at the south pole of the moon. That water freezes almost instantly and much of it eventually settles in the south pole region.
However, the Cassini spacecraft took pictures of all sides of the moon, and as it turns out, there is also a fair amount of fresh ice around the northern hemisphere. It is not as dense as fresh ice near the south pole, but it is an indication that the northern hemisphere of the moon was active in the not-so-distant past.
It is impossible to tell how the new ice got to the Northern Hemisphere based on current observations. Either it enjoyed activity similar to that of the South Pole, with the formation of cracks and fresh water pouring out, or it was a more gradual process, with water pouring out of smaller holes over time.
“Infrared shows us that the surface of the South Pole is young, which is not a surprise because we knew of the jets that threw icy material there,” said Gabriel Tobie, a co-author of the research, in a statement. “Now, thanks to these infrared eyes, you can go back in time and say that a large region of the northern hemisphere also looks young and was probably active not long ago, on geological timelines.”
As the search for life in our solar system continues to heat up, worlds like Enceladus, Europa, and Titan will receive increasing attention. Understanding the mechanisms by which their surfaces work will be very important if we hope to understand how life can form in one or all of them.
Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games for the past decade, covering the latest news and trends in virtual reality, wearable devices, smartphones, and future technology. Most recently, Mike served as a technology editor at The Daily Dot and has been featured in USA Today, Time.com, and in many other print and web media. His love of reporting is second only to his addiction to games.
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