Enceladus Plume-Orbital Effects? - Unmanned Spaceflight.com

Enceladus Plume-Orbital Effects?, Does Enceladus have a low-thrust rocket?

nprev View Member Profile	Dec 6 2006, 03:02 AM Post #1
Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602	One interesting question that needs to be answered is just how long Enceladus' plume has lasted over geological time. Just out of curiosity, has anybody calculated how much "thrust" is generated by this continuous outgassing? Reason I ask is that there just might be enough cumulative effect to cause axial instability, and therefore possibly explain some of the moon's odd geology. Perhaps the hot spot is migratory? -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.

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dvandorn View Member Profile	Dec 9 2006, 03:24 AM Post #2
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15	Yes, but... I seem to recall that various analyses of Enceladus and the location of its "hot spots" indicated that the entire moon may have heeled over during its lifetime, repositioning its polar areas to equatorial regions and vice-versa. If the plumes were originally pushing at Enceladus from, say, 20 degrees south, could they have (very slowly) pushed the entire body around such that the plumes are now coming from the south pole? -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain

Posts in this topic

nprev Enceladus Plume-Orbital Effects? Dec 6 2006, 03:02 AM

ugordan OTOH, the thrust is really, really, really too wea... Dec 6 2006, 08:17 AM

tasp If most of the plume follows ballistic trajectory ... Dec 6 2006, 02:19 PM

dvandorn Bringing it down to spacecraft terms, though, whil... Dec 6 2006, 07:25 PM

ugordan That, too, will be miniscule. The "thrust... Dec 6 2006, 09:08 PM

mchan QUOTE (ugordan @ Dec 6 2006, 01:08 PM) Th... Dec 8 2006, 03:55 AM

ugordan Yeah, but that orthogonal portion of the vector wa... Dec 8 2006, 07:58 AM

tty QUOTE (ugordan @ Dec 8 2006, 08:58 AM) Th... Dec 8 2006, 09:13 PM

ugordan Ahh, but it is totally insignificant to the orbita... Dec 9 2006, 12:53 AM

nprev Asked and answered--good stuff, gentlemen, thanks.... Dec 7 2006, 07:14 PM

ngunn Tasp dealt with the component perpendicular to the... Dec 8 2006, 01:01 PM

dvandorn Yes, but... I seem to recall that various analyse... Dec 9 2006, 03:24 AM

ugordan IIRC, the diapir-induced orientation of the moon h... Dec 9 2006, 11:56 AM

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