Evidence of Hydrothermal Activity on Enceladus, Hypotheses for Silica and Methane plumes Options

[stevesliva]

Enceladus May Harbor Hydrothermal Activity

Silica detected by the CDA doesn't have a plausible genesis other than water supersaturated with silica cooling.

Methane detected by INMS could be explained by methane being produced faster than it can be bound up in clathrates.

[Vultur]

Wow - an ocean 45 kilometers deep, with the moon being 40% liquid water by volume? That's pretty incredible.

[katodomo]

That'd still place the core at only around 2.5 g/cm³ and a mass fraction of around 60-65%. Given the previously assumed silicate material in the core, even for pure silicates that density level is only within range for low-pressure forms though, which shouldn't be the case in this position. I'd therefore assume the 185 km "core" in the model includes the previously theorized porous zone where ocean water would permeate core material.