AlexBlackwell
May 16 2007, 05:01 PM
There are two new Enceladus-related papers in the
May 17, 2007, issue of Nature: one by Nimmo
et al. and one by Hurford
et al. There is also an accompanying News and Views piece by Andrew Dombard. See the
Editor's Summary for a synopsis and links.
Note: Those without access to Nature may wish to keep an eye on
Nimmo's publication page. Reprints are often posted there.
AlexBlackwell
May 16 2007, 05:08 PM
Moon's Geysers Created by Ice FracturesBy Ker Than
Staff Writer, Space.com
posted: 16 May 2007
01:01 pm ET
Frictional heating explains plumes on EnceladusUniversity of California Santa Cruz
May 17, 2007
AlexBlackwell
May 16 2007, 07:19 PM
nprev
May 16 2007, 07:25 PM
From the Stephens article:
"In the new paper, the researchers estimated the thickness of the ice shell to be at least 5 kilometers (3 miles) and probably several tens of kilometers or miles. They also estimated that the movement along the fault lines is about half a meter over the course of a tidal period." (BF & italics added by me).
Good grief...that's HUGE if those faults extend any depth into the shell!
AlexBlackwell
May 16 2007, 08:07 PM
There are two interesting related papers in the June 2007 issue of
Icarus:
Tidal heating in EnceladusJennifer Meyer and Jack Wisdom
Icarus 188, 535-539 (2007)
Abstract136 Kb PDF preprintEnceladus: Present internal structure and differentiation by early and long-term radiogenic heatingGerald Schubert, John D. Anderson, Bryan J. Travis and Jennifer Palguta
Icarus 188, 345-355 (2007)
Abstract
AlexBlackwell
May 16 2007, 08:12 PM
QUOTE (AlexBlackwell @ May 16 2007, 07:01 AM)

Note: Those without access to Nature may wish to keep an eye on
Nimmo's publication page. Reprints are often posted there.
The Nimmo
et al. paper and supplementary information is now available at the above link.
volcanopele
May 16 2007, 09:53 PM
hmm, interesting papers. My only comment is that the predicted shear stress, which leads to variations in long-term heat flow, doesn't quite match the CIRS observations. In particular, it seems to predict that the anti-Saturnian ends of Cairo and Alexandria Sulci are coolest while CIRS shows this as a local maximum. The explanation for the temperatures observed however definitely seems plausible.