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[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

From the December 15, 2006, issue of Science:

A Clathrate Reservoir Hypothesis for Enceladus' South Polar Plume
Susan W. Kieffer, Xinli Lu, Craig M. Bethke, John R. Spencer, Stephen Marshak, and Alexandra Navrotsky
Science 314, 1764-1766 (2006)
Abstract
Supporting Online Material

See also the accompanying News of the Week article "A Dry View of Enceladus Puts a Damper on Chances for Life There" by Richard Kerr.

EDIT: See also the related Space.com story.

2nd EDIT: See "Scientists propose alternate model for plume on Enceladus."

This post has been edited by AlexBlackwell: Dec 14 2006, 07:19 PM

[nprev]

Any new thoughts in the planetary science community regarding just how Enceladus' core could get (and stay) hot?

Last I heard, the moon's tidal 'squeezing' from Dione didn't seem to provide enough energy, which is presumably why alternate plume generation mechanisms like the clathrate model that require less energy input are under active consideration...

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Any new thoughts in the planetary science community regarding just how Enceladus' core could get (and stay) hot?

Last I heard, the moon's tidal 'squeezing' from Dione didn't seem to provide enough energy, which is presumably why alternate plume generation mechanisms like the clathrate model that require less energy input are under active consideration...

I wouldn't say that tidal heating of Enceladus to account for the observed high temperatures at its south pole has been discounted. In fact, even Spencer et al. [2006] state: "It is also possible that Enceladus is in an oscillatory state, as has been proposed for Io and Europa [reference omitted]. In that case, its eccentricity and tidal heating rate may have recently been much higher, and perhaps the moon is still cooling down from that period."