Thanks to james webb space telescopeA team of scientists of the POT detect detect the expulsion of water vapor from a frozen moon of Saturn, the largest ever recorded to date.
As explained by the North American space agency through a statement, the column of material that was expelled by enceladusthe sixth largest moon of Saturn, will develop no less than over the course of 9,659 kilometerswhich is almost equivalent to distances between the cities of Los Angeles and Buenos Aires or between Mexico and Patagonia.
“When I was looking at the data, at first, I thought I had to be wrong. It was very shocking to detect a column of water more than 20 times the size of the moon.said Gerónimo Villanueva, a member of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“The water column extends well beyond its emission zone at the south pole. mys so large that it confirms the relationship of Enceladus with the distributionn of water in the form of ice in the rest of the Saturn system, con other moons and debris rings,” added the study’s lead author.
Daily hydration reminder 💧
Webb detected a massive water emission from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, spanning more than 6,000 miles and gushing out at 79 gallons per second. (Webb’s data shows Enceladus as a white pixel. Compare its size to the jet of water below!) pic.twitter.com/3dyJMUIuvf
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) May 30, 2023
Beyond the gigantic size of the steam jet, another thing that caused a lot of surprise among the researchers was the high speed to which is expelled water vapor: about 300 liters per second
“At this rate, you could fill an olympic pool in just a couple of hours. By comparison, doing it with a garden hose on Earth it would take more than two weeks ”, warned from NASA.
United Nations oceanic world of about 4% of the Earth’s surface, and only 504 kilometers wide, enceladus has geysers that shoot water vapor and ice particles into outer space and has a huge salt water tank located between his frozen crust and its rock core, what make it occupy a place of privilege in the list of planets and satellites with high probability to develop or possess microbial life.
“The Enceladus’ orbit around Saturn is relatively fast, of only 33 hours. As she rockets around Saturn, the moon and its jets basically spit waterleaving behind a halo, almost like a donut,” said Villanueva.
“In Webb’s observations, not only was the column enormous, but it there was water absolutely everywhereWe will make new discoveries and we will learn more about the composition of the underlying ocean”, concluded the NASA scientist.
