-
-
- I am working on a series of moon reviews. Saturn’s Titan and Enceladus, Jupiter’s Europa. This one is about Enceladus. But, here is a quick summary to get you familiar of some of the more than 100 moons orbiting Jovian planets:
-
---------------- Jupiter moons - Io - Europa - Ganymede - Callisto
-
---------------- Saturn moons - Mimas - Enceladus - Tethys - Dione - Rhea - Titan - Iapetus
-
--------------- Uranus moons - Miranda - Ariel - Umbriel - Titania - Oberon
-
---------------- Neptune moons - Triton - Nereid
-
---------------- Mercury moons - none
-
--------------- Earth Moon - one Moon.
-
- Enceladus has groves in its surface that are measurably warmer than the surrounding terrain. These groves are venting huge clouds of water vapor and ice crystals.
-
- Enceladus is barely 500 kilometers across ( 311 miles ). It would fit inside the borders of Colorado.
-
- How to explain this geological activity in such a small body? Radioactivity? Tidal friction heating?
-
- It could be that the icy composition makes these properties fundamentally different that terrestrial worlds.
-
- Enceladus is the best bet astronomers have for finding life elsewhere in our Solar System. Enceladus has a subsurface global liquid ocean. Near the south pole subsurface sea spews into space out of fissures in the surface.
-
- A liquid water ocean lies between the moon’s icy surface layer and the rocky interior. It is the push and pull of Saturn’s gravity that is keeping this water in its liquid state.
-
- Material from the over 100 geysers is pulled towards Saturn and orbit’s the planet as the E-ring. Silicate particles have been found in this ring. The 194F temperature and PH of 8.5 to 10.5 needed to form these particles imply Enceladus harbors hot-spring heated water. By example, the hydrothermal vents found on Earth sea floors host extreme organisms. Maybe Enceladus does as well?
-
- The chemistry that produces these silicates also releases molecular hydrogen gas.
-
- We still have much more to learn from exploration of the moons. Here are some previous reviews about Enceladus available upon request:
-
- #1714 - Tidal forces create a liquid ocean under the surface ice on Enceladus. This ocean ia about the size of Lake Superior that lies under 25 miles of thick ice.
-
- # 1362 - In 2008 a flyby found geyser contain water, nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, ammonia, solid particles, propane, ethane, and acetylene. ammonia is a potent antifreeze and could keep liquid water down to - 136F.
-
- #1166 - Cyrovolcanoes on the surface are spewing jets of water vapor and ice into outer space.
-
- # 957 - Enceladus is 14% the size of the Moon with density of 1.85 grams/ cm^3. The Moon’s density is 3.34 g/cm^3 and the density of water is 1.00 g/cm^3 ( because that is how the gram is defined.)
-
- Data for these review calculations:
-
--------------------- Enceladus --------- Diameter ------------ 311 miles
--------------------------------------------- Mass ----------------- 1.2*10^20 kilograms
--------------------------------------------- Volume ------------- 6.4*10^22 cm^3
--------------------------------------------- Density -------------- 1.85 g/cm^3
-
--------------------- Earth --------- Diameter ------------ 7,926 miles
---------------------------------------- Mass ----------------- 5.97*10^24 kilograms
---------------------------------------- Density -------------- 5.52 g/cm^3
--------------------- Moon --------- Diameter ------------ 2,160 miles
----------------------------------------- Mass ----------------- 7.349*10^22 kilograms
----------------------------------------- Density -------------- 3.34 g/cm^3
--------------------- Enceladus / Moon Ratios --------- Diameter ------------ 14%
---------------------------------------------------------------- Mass ----------------- 0.16%
---------------------------------------------------------------- Density -------------- 55%
-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------- RSVP, Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----------------
--- Some reviews are at: -------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
-- email comments, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
- to: ------- jamesdetrick@comcast.net ------ “Jim Detrick” -----------
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/ -- www.facebook.com -- www.twitter.com
----- 707-536-3272 ---------------------- Thursday, December 17, 2015 -----
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment