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Saturn's Tidal Tugs Energize Enceladus' Icy Plumes
astroengine writes "Giant plumes of water vapor and ice particles blast from geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus — but scientists have often wondered why the relatively diminutive moon, which measures only 310 miles across, wasn't frozen solid. They also began creating computer models to try to unravel the physics behind the stunning geological phenomenon. Now, after analyzing 252 images of Enceladus' plumes, scientists have part of the answer: Gravitational variations during the moon's slightly eccentric, 1.37-day orbit around Saturn create tidal forces that directly impact how much material is shot into space from four fissures around the moon's south pole. 'It's not a subtle variation. You can look at some of the images and you can actually see it with your eyes. It's very dramatic,' said planetary scientist Matthew Hedman."
It's not news that tidal forces can keep moons from freezing solid. Io is one of them and we've known about that since we saw vulcanism from Voyager 1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanology_of_Io.
And we've calculated that Enceladus should also be similarly kneaded.
It's news that we're able to see the tidal distortion "directly."
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BMO
That snark was uncalled for.
Gravity Affects Stuff!
Talk about burying the lead. The big news here is
you can actually see it with your eyes
And all this time I've been trying to see stuff with my feet. Could be why I'm not a rocket surgeon.
So tidal forces manipulate this moon enough to cause fissures to open, and stuff comes pouring out from underneath! Sounds like a fracture in progress to me, but one that hasn't torn the moon apart yet. It also sounds like there's some sort of elasticity in play; it's hard to imagine the self gravity of this small an object being a major force. So maybe when enough stuff escapes that the moon stops being elastic enough to recover from the tidal fissures, it fractures and splits?
Sounds like a perfect recipe for turning big rocks into small ones...that then resemble the stuff making up Saturn's rings.
Methinks we are seeing ring formation as a live event.
you can actually see it with your eyes
And all this time I've been trying to see stuff with my feet. Could be why I'm not a rocket surgeon.
Sounds like you should be running for public office instead.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
That snark was uncalled for.
Uh... isn't that true of pretty much all snark?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
but that's how it looks to the layman
How do you know? You a scientist or something?
This is one of the filthiest subject lines I've ever read on /.
but that's how it looks to the layman
How do you know? You a scientist or something?
Mad scientist, yes. That's how I know what the world looks like through a layman's eyes - I have a couple I keep on the shelf for just such an occasion.
Mwa ha ha.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
218 earth days for a full orbit.
I wonder if that moon used to be almost Titan-sized, but shrank over time by blowing its load out into space. If it's a steamer at such a small size, it must have really been wild when it was larger and had more mass and volume for tidal forces to tug at.
Table-ized A.I.
Huge member (of the solar system) stimulates insides to wet eruption
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
http://youtu.be/gTS0Vv3yS6U
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
What does this have to do with the price of water on mars?
Whenever a player quits EVE to go play WoW, the Average IQ of both games increase.
I dunno, Gordon Freeman was able to use a few snarks as homing grenades that one time...
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
Don't make me equip the crowbar, smartass.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese