[X] My Assistant

[paxdan]

Nasa Watch is reporting that we shoud expect a large announcement from the Cassini team today:

My wild speculation is that it will be a subsurface ocean confirmed on enceladus. Hence more potentially habitable real eastate in the solar system.

Heads up anyone?

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Note that NASAWatch/Spaceref is in its "breaking news" speculation mode regarding a "big" or "huge" announcement today.

Frankly, it looks as if Cowing just picked up on the toms-toms beating about the publication of the March 10, 2006, issue of Science, which is a special issue (Cassini at Enceladus).

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Note to whoever merged the two threads: If possible, perhaps you should move my post to the top; it makes sense given the topic title. Or you can change the topic title to match paxdan's message.

[JRehling]

Note that NASAWatch/Spaceref is in its "breaking news" speculation mode regarding a "big" or "huge" announcement today.

Frankly, it looks as if Cowing just picked up on the toms-toms beating about the publication of the March 10, 2006, issue of Science, which is a special issue (Cassini at Enceladus).

The media at large has picked this up, it is an announcement of subsurface liquid H2O at Enceladus, which seems to be a "no news" consequence of the jets imaged months ago. It's something if a place as profoundly obscure as Enceladus could become part of the vocabulary of the New Yorker set, if not a household name.

I don't, again, see this as news anymore, but it's a time to reflect that the Saturn system has definitely KOed the Galileans in terms of interest. Enceladus alone is almost a combination of Ganymede (old crust and new), Europa (subsurface ocean), and Io (volcanic plumes) in one. Then there's Titan. Wow.

Enceladus is still in the running for a high-priority flagship mission, although I don't know if it has the potential to climb to the top of that list among outer satellites.

[brachiopod]

FYI, "drudge" is reporting that they will announce liquid water on Enceladus. See
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash8na.htm
-Bryan

[helvick]

FYI, "drudge" is reporting that they will announce liquid water on Enceladus. See
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash8na.htm
-Bryan

Hey John Spencer (john_s) is quoted in this - any chance you can confirm this?

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

FYI, "drudge" is reporting that they will announce liquid water on Enceladus. See
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash8na.htm
-Bryan

One has to chuckle at Cowing's journalistic standards, viz., "The Drudge Report has this story (and the press release) as their ultra- top news flash - above Condi and Iran. If *he* thinks this is more important (or at least of near-equal billing) than those issues..."

[Guest_paulanderson_*]

I don't, again, see this as news anymore, but it's a time to reflect that the Saturn system has definitely KOed the Galileans in terms of interest. Enceladus alone is almost a combination of Ganymede (old crust and new), Europa (subsurface ocean), and Io (volcanic plumes) in one. Then there's Titan. Wow.

I would certainly call this (big) news, even though we knew about the plumes already, because various theories were being considered to explain the plumes, the most interesting of which, but difficult to figure out the possible mechanisms of, was subsurface liquid water. Now it sounds like the Cassini team has settled on that explanation, and perhaps the water would be fairly close to the surface? Like a second Europa, but with active geysers... I'll be watching with interest!

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

I would certainly call this (big) news, even though we knew about the plumes already, because various theories were being considered to explain the plumes, the most interesting of which, but difficult to figure out the possible mechanisms of, was subsurface liquid water. Now it sounds like the Cassini team has settled on that explanation, and perhaps the water would be fairly close to the surface? Like a second Europa, but with active geysers... I'll be watching with interest!

I think the point John Rehling was making was that for those us who closely follow these types of things, the news isn't as momentous as for someone who, for instance, might say, "Enceladus. Isn't that the name of that new car model?"

[volcanopele]

The Enceladus would make a good name for a car that runs on water...

*ducks*

[Guest_paulanderson_*]

I think the point John Rehling was making was that for those us who closely follow these types of things, the news isn't as momentous as for someone who, for instance, might say, "Enceladus. Isn't that the name of that new car model?"

Very true. And here I thought it was a new car model...

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Cassini Finds Signs of Liquid Water on Saturn's Moon
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer, Space.com
posted: 09 March 2006
12:57 pm ET

[elakdawalla]

JPL's release is out via email, but it hasn't made it to their website yet, so I'll post it here.

NEWS RELEASE: 2006-033 March 9, 2006

NASA'S CASSINI DISCOVERS POTENTIAL LIQUID WATER ON ENCELADUS

NASA's Cassini spacecraft may have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs that erupt in Yellowstone-like geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The rare occurrence of liquid water so near the surface raises many new questions about the mysterious moon.

"We realize that this is a radical conclusion -- that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold," said Dr. Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. "However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms."

High-resolution Cassini images show icy jets and towering plumes ejecting large quantities of particles at high speed. Scientists examined several models to explain the process. They ruled out the idea that the particles are produced by or blown off the moon's surface by vapor created when warm water ice converts to a gas. Instead, scientists have found evidence for a much more exciting possibility -- the jets might be erupting from near-surface pockets of liquid water above 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), like cold versions of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone.

Mission scientists report these and other Enceladus findings in this week's issue of Science.

"We previously knew of at most three places where active volcanism exists: Jupiter's moon Io, Earth, and possibly Neptune's moon Triton. Cassini changed all that, making Enceladus the latest member of this very exclusive club, and one of the most exciting places in the solar system," said Dr. John Spencer, Cassini scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo.

"Other moons in the solar system have liquid-water oceans covered by kilometers of icy crust," said Dr. Andrew Ingersoll, imaging team member and atmospheric scientist at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "What's different here is that pockets of liquid water may be no more than tens of meters below the surface."

Other unexplained oddities now make sense. "As Cassini approached Saturn, we discovered that the Saturnian system is filled with oxygen atoms. At the time we had no idea where the oxygen was coming from," said Dr. Candy Hansen, Cassini scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "Now we know that Enceladus is spewing out water molecules, which break down into oxygen and hydrogen."

Scientists are also seeing variability at Enceladus. "Even when Cassini is not flying close to Enceladus, we can detect that the plume's activity has been changing through its varying effects on the soup of electrically-charged particles that flow past the moon," said Dr. Geraint H. Jones, Cassini scientist, magnetospheric imaging instrument, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.

Scientists still have many questions. Why is Enceladus currently so active? Are other sites on Enceladus active? Might this activity have been continuous enough over the moon's history for life to have had a chance to take hold in the moon's interior?

"Our search for liquid water has taken a new turn. The type of evidence for liquid water on Enceladus is very different from what we've seen at Jupiter's moon Europa. On Europa the evidence from surface geological features points to an internal ocean. On Enceladus the evidence is direct observation of water vapor venting from sources close to the surface," said Dr. Peter Thomas, Cassini imaging scientist, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

In the spring of 2008, scientists will get another chance to look at Enceladus when Cassini flies within 350 kilometers (approximately 220 miles), but much work remains after Cassini's four-year prime mission is over.

"There's no question that, along with the moon Titan, Enceladus should be a very high priority for us. Saturn has given us two exciting worlds to explore," said Dr. Jonathan Lunine, Cassini interdisciplinary scientist, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, we were discussing this story in our weekly staff meeting, and Lou Friedman kept prounouncing the moon's name "EN - sell - AH - dus" instead of the way I've usually pronounced it, "en-SELL-ah-dus." Lou's pronunciation sounds an awful lot like the word "Enchilada," and now we're all talking about the discovery of water on enchiladas...

(For those of you not familiar with tex-mex food, an enchilada is a tortilla wrapped around some yummy filling and drowned in a sauce.)

--Emily

[volcanopele]

By my watch, it is after 2pm EST. WOOHOO!!

Images associated with the ISS and CIRS papers are now up on the Photojournal: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/new

Enceladus "Cold Geyser" Model
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07799
Graphical Explanation of our model. Basically because of the appearance of the plumes, the amount of water particles entrained in the plumes, and the lack of ammonia, all point to plumes generated by near-surface reservoirs of liquid water.

Why all the life hubub? We now have a place in the solar system, besides the earth, where organics, liquid water, and an energy source have been found in close proximity to one another. Wait close proximity is not the right word, in the same spot, that's better.

BTW, the Science cover has the Rev11 mosaic

[alan]

Report: NASA Will Not Announce Life Find

NASA will not be making a "huge" announcement regarding evidence of life somewhere else in our solar system Thursday, as reported on a local news Web site and repeated by some broadcasters, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today.
The space agency is releasing a study Thursday at 2 p.m., that is being misinterpreted by some people, according to an Internet posting by Florida Today's John Kelly.
A story posted earlier on a Web site of a local cable news outlet in Central Florida said, "NASA is planning to make a huge announcement today, about possible life in our own solar system." It is simply incorrect, Kelly said.

Oops