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Saturn Moon Continues to Delight and Baffle
vic_1066 writes to tell us that BBC News is reporting on the many interesting discoveries made by the Cassini probe. The Saturn moon, Enceladus, apparently continues to provide confusion and excitement for scientists the world over. The Cassini probe has been making waves ever since its arrival to the Saturn system.
As usual, get the information straight from NASA
Press Release, Pictures
Throw the bums out!
Enceladus was male, as you can tell by the name. A female would have been named "Encelada," making the mexican food joke even better.
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1) The volcanoes at Io's surface have nothing to do with plasma physics or MHD.
2) No volcanoes have "drifted around" the surface of Io.
3) There have been migrations of Ionian eruption plumes (the gas/dust "geysers" above the surface).
4) We can quite readily explain this with simple thermophysics. Plasma or MHD has nothing to do with it.
5) Some people have claimed that MHD has influenced the shape of plumes, but we can't reconcile that with the observations of WHERE the fields interact with Io.
6) Some have claimed that electric currents can cause the elevated temperatures of some of Io's volcanoes, but they haven't done the simple math to know that even at 100% efficiency, there simply isn't enough energy available, and AGAIN, the field lines don't intersect the high temperature volcanoes.
Theory is fine, but if your pet theory can't handle the observations, go back to the theory--the observations are rarely "wrong".
Not sure what the hell this has to do with plasma physics or MHD. Electrical currrents don't do a damned thing to effect morphology. Same with craters. Same with IMPACTS into comets and subsequent ejection of materials.
Are you really claiming that high energy particles accelerated by the nearly non-existant magnetic field of Mars is causing flat-bottomed craters?! Wow! They must be moving really fucking fast.
Not sure what you mean that "these guys" never studied plasma fluid dynamics. If by, "these guys", you mean planetary scientists, cosmologists, or astronomers (all VERY broad fields), "they" invented or extended just about any new branch physics (I'm talking real science, with perdictions and ways to test the predictions) you care to talk about.
Who the hell modded that post "insightful"?