Cassini space mission scientists have discoveredsalty ice particles in Saturn’s ringsthat could indicate the presence ofan ocean on the moon Enceladus.
As reported by NASA and ESA, the salts come from the “E” ring of Saturn, which usually thickens at the cost of material ejected by the moon Enceladus. Specifically, the Cassini probe managed to capture the moment in which a gigantic emission of ajet of water vapor, gases and ice grainsemerging from one of the cracks on the south pole of the satellite. Using theCosmic Dust Analyzeraboard Cassini, scientists have been able to chemically analyze this emission, detectingsodium saltsin concentrations very similar to those of Earth’s oceans. Faced with this evidence, Frank Postberg of the Max Plank Institute and his colleagues have concluded that there is a salty ocean beneath the surface of Enceladus. Liquid water, they claim, is the only thing that can dissolve amounts of minerals as large as those evidenced by the levels of salt detected
As if this were not enough, together with the salts, researchers have identifiedcarbonateslike soda, which Postberg says in the magazineNaturethey provide a slightly alkaline pH that, “together with the heat measured at the surface near the south pole of the moon and the organic compounds found in the plumes, could configure an environment in Enceladus suitable for the formation of the precursors of life.”
Enceladus, discovered in by the German astronomerWilliam Herschelin 1789, it is covered by a thick layer of ice and has a diameter of 500 km. The new finding will help to understand the formation process of this and other planetary moons.
