- 1714 - Saturn’s moon - Enceladus New discoveries suggest an underwater ocean that contains ammonia anti-freeze and exits plums or geysers through the thick icy crust on the surface. Check the data and see if you agree?
-
-
----------------- 1714 - Saturn’s moon - Enceladus
-
- In 2004 When Cassini spacecraft reached Saturn it discovered a plume of water erupting from the south pole of the moon, Enceladus.
-
- To date it has spotted over 100 of these plums. Astronomers are convinced there is a huge ocean of water below the icy surface of Enceladus.
-
- The spacecraft is orbiting 60 miles above the surface of this moon. By studying the orbit carefully astronomers can map the gravity changes and then the landscape of the mass below.
-
- The result is a topographical map of the surface. Of course, the gravitational tugs must correct for those coming from the Sun, planets and other moons in the system. It must correct for the radiation pressure from the Sun, from the radiation pressure on board the spacecraft, and energy sources, from the drag caused by passing through the geyser plums. Well, you can see there is a lot of science and math needed to get to these correct conclusions.
-
- The conclusion: There is an ocean about the size of Lake Superior under a 25 mile thick sheet of ice.
-
- The underground ocean is kept liquid by the friction produced by the push and pull tidal forces due to Saturn’s gravity. It is the same effect that the ocean tides that occur on Earth due to the Moon’s gravity.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other reviews on this topic:
-
- #957 - Enceladus is 311 miles in diameter and would fit inside the state of Colorado. It is the second closest moon orbiting Saturn outside the rings by 148,000 miles
It reflects nearly 100% of its sunlight.
Our Moon only reflects 7% of its sunlight.
-
Enceladus is 3.9% the size of the Earth and 0.0014% the mass of the Earth.
Earth radius = 6.378*10^6 meters. Earth mass = 5.9742*10^24 kilograms
3.9% or radius = 0.2487*10^6 m which would put the volume at 4/3*Pi*r^3
at V = 6.45*10^18 m^3 Density = mass / volume = 1,297 kg/m^3
-
Enceladus is 114 times larger than our Moon and 0.114% the mass of our Moon.
Moon radius is 1,738 meters. 114 times is 1.98*10^5 meters. Volume is 32.5*10^15 m^3.
-
Moon mass is 7.348*10^22 kg. 0.114% of that is 8.53*10^19 kg.
Density = 2620 kg / m^3 which is twice as high as other calculations that put the density very nearly that of water. To get the two calculations in agreement. The mass of Enceladus needs to be 0.111% that of the Moon. And the size needs to be 140 times , not 114 times that of the Moon. Stay tuned there is still more to learn.
-
Enceladus density is 1240 kilograms / m^3 nearly the same as pure water 1,000 Kg /m^3
Its rotation and orbit are locked at 1.37 days ( 32.9 hours ).
-
- #1166 - Saturn has 62 moons. The plums on Enceladus are called cyrovolcanoes. The
temperature of the water is -136 F but still liquid because it contains ammonia which is a natural anti-freeze.
-
- #1362 - The escape velocity is only 500 miles per hour.
The average temperature is -337F
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
--- Some reviews are at: -------------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
---- email request for copies to: ------- jamesdetrick@comcast.net ---------
---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/ , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com ---
---- www.twitter.com , --- 707-536-3272 ---- Wednesday, December 31, 2014 ---
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment