Enceladus Plume Search, Nov. 27 |
Enceladus Plume Search, Nov. 27 |
Nov 24 2005, 04:01 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1465 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Columbus OH USA Member No.: 13 |
Interesting item in the science plan kernel (S16) just released to the NAIF website:
OBSERVATION_ID: S1629 SEQUENCE: S16 OBSERVATION_TITLE: Plume Search SCIENCE_OBJECTIVE: Hope to detect/observe plumes, whether from volcanic activity or geysers. OBS_DESCRIPTION: Point and stare. SUBSYSTEM: ISS PRIMARY_POINTING: ISS_NAC to Enceladus (0.0,5.0,0.0 deg. offset) REQUEST_ID: ISS_018EN_PLUMES001_PRIME REQUEST_TITLE: ENCELADUS Geyser/Plume Search REQ_DESCRIPTION: 1;ENCELADUS Geyser/Plume Search 1x1xNPp -- 3 different exposures BEGIN_TIME: 2005 NOV 27 19:00:00 UTC END_TIME: 2005 NOV 27 20:00:00 UTC -------------------- |
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Guest_BruceMoomaw_* |
Dec 1 2005, 12:33 AM
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Guests |
That last quote was actually a misinterpretation by Emily Lakdawalla of what Spilker told her, which is that there was some evidence from particle distribution that the E Ring particles were coming off Enceladus as a whole rather than from the vents. That particular theory very quickly became inoperative; it's the vents, all right.
What I can't yet discover is whether the stuff being spewed from them is a water/ammonia mixture (as would have seemed logical), or just plain water. I'm still trying to get clarification on this, but Cassini seems to be indicating that much more of the nitrogen of Saturn's moons is instead in the form of HCN than had been previously been believed. |
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Dec 1 2005, 12:23 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1465 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Columbus OH USA Member No.: 13 |
QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ Nov 30 2005, 08:33 PM) That last quote was actually a misinterpretation by Emily Lakdawalla of what Spilker told her, which is that there was some evidence from particle distribution that the E Ring particles were coming off Enceladus as a whole rather than from the vents. That particular theory very quickly became inoperative; it's the vents, all right. Seems like you went through this before, and it turns out that Emily Lakdawalla's quote is dead-on accurate & there is little room for misinterpretation--just furious backpedaling. The article also reports: "A different in-situ instrument, the Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA), had measured Saturn's E Ring particles during previous trips through the ring plane. The vaporous atmosphere detected by UVIS and INMS does not match the particulate nature of the E ring, Spilker said." http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/0730_En...ripes_Spew.html It doesn't say what those particles are generally--I suppose ice? So I guess the trick is to detect ice particles coming out of the fountains or else figure out how they could form out of the vapor later? -------------------- |
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Dec 1 2005, 01:08 PM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1465 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Columbus OH USA Member No.: 13 |
Closeups of the tiger stripes are intriguing but a little hard to sort out because of the "crater effect" or whatever it's called where features can seem to flip between convex or concave with each blink of the eye. I think the following (approx. south pole marked with a circle) shows raised ridges on each side of the fissure, as if material has spread out from the fissure?
Knowing that the sun is to the left a bit helps to disambiguate things, based on the shadows. Another stripe detail: -------------------- |
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