[X] My Assistant

[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

[volcanopele]

The current thinking is that Saturn's moons formed relatively quickly, allowing short-lived radionuclides like Al-26 and Fe-60 to produce greater short term heating when a moon like Enceladus than it normally would have. For Enceladus, with a greater percentage of rock than any of the other moons except Titan, this would have allowed for the melting of the interior. While the resonance with Dione would not have generated enough heat to heat up the interior by itself, it would be enough to prevent Enceladus from freezing.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The current thinking is that Saturn's moons formed relatively quickly, allowing short-lived radionuclides like Al-26 and Fe-60 to produce greater short term heating when a moon like Enceladus than it normally would have. For Enceladus, with a greater percentage of rock than any of the other moons except Titan, this would have allowed for the melting of the interior. While the resonance with Dione would not have generated enough heat to heat up the interior by itself, it would be enough to prevent Enceladus from freezing.

And, I believe, added constituents such NH3, CH3OH, H2SO4, etc. could help depress melting points.