Rev 61 Enceladus (March 12 2008) Options

[Stu]

Anyone else here for the media briefing? Bring popcorn?

[ugordan]

I hate to break it to you, Stu, but it's already over

[Stu]

I hate to break it to you, Stu, but it's already over

Ah, got my times mixed up. Never mind. I'll look forward to reading up the results.

[Juramike]

The Tiger Stripes were found to be hot along most of their entire length. ("Hot" meaning ca. 100 K above the surface temperature)

NASA image release: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10361


And Chris McKay weighs in on the possibility of life on Enceladus: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features/feature20080326.cfm
(Spoiler alert: might coulda happened)

-Mike

[stewjack]

News release of the Enceladus flyby.

Anyone have the list of types of organics and their relative amounts?


-Mike

I saw about five minutes of what must have been a very short news conference. No audience questions. The only thing I remember was that all particles were very small which will allow the next Cassini pass through the plume to be at a lower altitude.

Jack

[ynyralmaen]

Ah, got my times mixed up ...

Yeah - one hour less time difference between the US and Europe for a few weeks, until we're on summer time too.

Anyone know if the conference will be posted online? I missed most of it - didn't realize there was a separate media channel until it was too late ;can't see any repeats listed.

[elakdawalla]

I hate that whole media channel thing. Stupid NASA. I missed most of the press conference myself, but fortunately I was able to catch up with John Spencer and Hunter Waite by phone, so I've got good stuff for an article later today -- stay tuned. Carolina Martinez told me that she was working on getting the press conference (maybe audio only, I am not sure) posted on the Enceladus flyby blog later today for the benefit of everyone who missed it. So check there and post here when it shows up!

I think the biggest news is that, compositionally, Enceladus looks like a comet, which is totally, completely baffling.

--Emily

[Juramike]

CICLOPS article on Enceladus' plume: http://ciclops.org

Composition of plumes compared to comets: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10357


And the INMS spectrum showing simple and "complex" organics (their definition of "complex" is very different than mine - we're not talking teterodotoxin here): http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10356


(Dalton = amu; benzene is about m.w. 78)

From CICLOPS cpcomments:
"Also, it is now unambiguous that the jets emerging from the south polar
fractures contain organic materials heavier than simple methane --
acetylene, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, propane, etc."

-Mike

[rlorenz]

From CICLOPS cpcomments:
"Also, it is now unambiguous that the jets emerging from the south polar
fractures contain organic materials heavier than simple methane --
acetylene, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, propane, etc."

-Mike

As sparkling water goes, I am not sure I'd like the taste of this....

Ciclops' unsurprising gushing (!) notwithstanding, there are a few people
(e.g. Veronique Vuitton at the Titan Chemistry workshop here in Miami
http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/Bil301/Titan2007.html )
noting that some attention should be paid to possible chemistry on the
surfaces of the INMS instrument itself (e.g. during Titan flybys, benzene or
Phenyl (C6H5), cant remember which, peaks AFTER closest approach). In
other words could these 'Enceladus' organics be reaction products of
Enceladus water with Titan gunk on the inside of the instrument?

I personally doubt it, but wanted to note that 'unambiguous' is a
pretty heavy duty word for what may be a rather complex situation.

I guess I won't complain too much if a Titan Flagship does a little bit
of Enceladus science on the way, though. Looks not entirely uninteresting....

[JRehling]

could these 'Enceladus' organics be reaction products of
Enceladus water with Titan gunk on the inside of the instrument?

Panspermia in action. "Attack of the Saturn Beasties" sure to follow.

"Hey, you got your smog in my geyser."

[Juramike]

"Hey, you got your smog in my geyser."

Or: "Who Plugged the Probe?"

[ectoterrestrial]

Missed the NTV briefing.

Looking at the following graph with mystery vertical axes:
MassSpec graph at PhotoJournal

I'm wondering if there's some nitrogen hiding in there. The lack of a large NO2 peak could be diagnostic of it's overall absence, but theres plenty of curve under which N2 and NO could be hiding, as well as some in the "simple" and "complex" organics.
Also, NH3 and fragments thereof at 17 AMU.

Does anyone know why 1) little nitrogen is inferred from the data or 2) when a published paper with these results will be available?

[DFortes]

Can I please caution peeps about the 'comet' comment

Which comet? Compositionally, comets appear to be extremely heterogeneous.

Secondly, observational planetary science should always avoid any labels that carry some kind of genetic connotation (since they're invariably wrong). So, if it barks like a comet, it's a comet?
Oh, metaphor god, strike me down.
For example, you can call a bunch of squiggles a dendritic pattern, but not a channel network (since it implies formation by fluid flow, whereas dendritic is purely descriptive) - unless you're pretty sure it's a channel network.

There are other ways to make heavier organics.

I'm loving these new data - the CIRS stuff is beautiful. I'd like to know how the shear heating bods feel about these results....

[jasedm]

Very interesting that the sulci hot spots are very noticeably parallel - why might this be???

[Juramike]

"Simple" organics = 1C + heteroatom [N or O] or 2C + associated hydrogens

"Complex" organics = 2C + heteroatom [N or O] or 3C + associated hydrogens

Propane m.w. 44
Ethanol ("moonshine" ) CH3CH2OH m.w. 46

Note that methanethiol (CH3SH) is a whopping 48 amu and was not detected by INMS

(but acetonitrile CH3CN (m.w. 41) , could be a "complex" organics consituent)

-Mike