Enceladus Plume Search, Nov. 27 |
Enceladus Plume Search, Nov. 27 |
Nov 24 2005, 04:01 PM
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#1
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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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Dec 1 2005, 05:01 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 30-January 05 Member No.: 162 |
How fast are these plumes turning Enceladus inside out?
How much material falls back on to the surface, and how much is permanently lost to the E ring? If the Cassini extended mission lasts till the next Saturnian equinox, perhaps photos of Enceladus' shadow on other moons will tell us more too. And Enceladus passing throught the shadows of other moons might help too. Any chance of a radio occultation of Cassini's transmissions by the plumes? |
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Dec 2 2005, 08:10 AM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
QUOTE (tasp @ Dec 1 2005, 06:01 PM) And if the occultation can be made simultaneously with the gravity/mass distribution measurements all the better. I'm not sure DSN can do both at the same time, can it? It depends on the speed the vapor/dust is expelled, but Enceladus has a very low surface gravity as is. Any venting is more likely to resemble cometary jets than Io-like plumes. It's also fairly visible in the CICLOPS color-coded image showing the extent to which the plumes rise. Encleadus gravity is so weak that any material expelled far enough is likely to go into Saturn orbit instead, hence the E-ring. The fresh south hemisphere implies that at least some stuff falls back down, but the relatively dirtier north hemisphere suggests that the stuff escapes into space rather than ballistically being deposited there also. -------------------- |
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