The Cassini spacecraft flew by Enceladus geysers – Urania – Progress of Astronomy

The Cassini spacecraft flew through icy geysers of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons for signs environment where there could be life.

plumes of water vapor, ice and dust constantly bursting into thousands of kilometers into space with tiger stripes near the south pole of the moon carrying in her womb molecules from a large, salty ocean beneath the icy surface of the moon.

Fly Cassini through the ice fountain is the second of three planned for this year flights near Enceladus, and the best chance of the discovery of evidence that this small globe may contain ingredients necessary for the emergence of life inside.

Meeting with the matter mysterious geysers lasted only a few dozen seconds, as the probe swept by the speed of approx. 35 000 km / h, and yet in this short time were collected up to 10 000 particles per second, they have been identified by the analyzer space dust installed on the probe. Analysis of the data in the coming weeks may provide us with evidence of the existence there of an environment capable of sustaining life.

“The instruments installed on board Cassini are not able to detect life,” said Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker. “Nevertheless, these instruments can do a lot of measurements of the ocean and the possibility of its life.

Earl Maize, deputy project manager of the Cassini specifically explains the capabilities of the probe” Cassini has instruments capable of detecting complex organic molecules that can still be fragments of larger molecules. However, these instruments are not able to determine whether taking place there, the processes are biological or geological. “

NASA confirmed the existence of global ocean between the icy crust of Enceladus and its rocky nucleus when the researchers measured the subtle fluctuations in gravity between the North Pole and the south, irregular movement, which can be explained by a hidden liquid layer in the interior of the moon. But what makes this subsurface ocean is still liquid and the processes that drive eruptions, geysers? The last flight Cassini will bring us closer to the answers to these questions. The probe survived close to the moon and flying through geysers. Now we just wait for the first results.

Credit: NASA / JPL / Astrobio