Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA researchers have now discovered a massive burst of water vapor reaching 9,600 kilometers into space. It is the first time that a direct vapor emission over such a distance has been observed, according to the US space agency.
The data and images returned to Earth by the JWST (pictured below) would also provide new insights into how these geyser-like fountains carry water through the ring system of the planet Saturn, according to the Webb website of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Potentially life-friendly salt water reservoir
The moon Enceladus, a marine world about four percent the size of Earth and only 500 kilometers across, is one of the most exciting scientific targets in the search for extraterrestrial life.Between the satellite’s icy outer crust and rocky core lies a potentially life-friendly reservoir of salt water.
Geyser-like volcanoes continue to spew streams of ice particles, water vapor and organic chemicals from characteristic crevices in Enceladus’ surface, informally called “tiger stripes.”
Saturn is “watered” by Enceladus
According to calculations, three to five percent of the water shed by Enceladus reaches Saturn’s atmosphere through numerous geysers. “There is nothing comparable on Earth,” says Paul Hartogh of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.
The fountains spew both water vapor and small ice particles into space (pictured above), likely creating Saturn’s so-called E ring, centered on Enceladus’s orbit around Saturn.
Source: Krone
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