Enceladus Flashcards
What is Enceladus?
The brightest moon in the solar system.
A moon of the planet Saturn.
It’s only 500km in diameter.
Was covered with ice on the surface.
Who discovered Enceladus?
Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel.
He also discovered Uranus.
What is Enceladus named after?
named after the giant Enceladus of Greek mythology.
What first pasted Enceladus?
Voyager 1. Confirmed that Enceladus was embedded in the densest part of Saturn’s diffuse E-ring.
What is Cassini?
A probe sent to investigate Enceladus. It discovered jets of water vapor and complex hydrocarbons in the moon’s south pole. In 2017, Cassini indicated hydrogen gas pouring into the surface ocean from hydrothermal activity on the seafloor, this could provide chemical energy for life sources.
What’s special about Enceladus?
It has South polar plumes. First discovered by Cassini in 2005. Had volcanic activity.
Where does the heat come from?
Underground heat-radioactive decay.
What is tidal heating?
orbital and rotational energy are dissipated as heat in the crust of an object. In addition, to the extent that tides produce heat along fractures, liberation may affect the magnitude and distribution of such tidal shear heating
Orbit and rotation?
Orbits 238,000 kilometers from the center of Saturn
It orbits Saturn every 32.9 hours
The orbit is in the dense part of Saturn’s E ring
Enceladus is ranked 14th in moons of the nearest distance to Saturn
Is there life on Enceladus?
Enceladus is one of the best places to look for extraterrestrial life.
The existence of underground ocean.
The seafloor might be made of silicate rock, which means the environment is suitable for complex chemical reactions.
