Astronomers from the Southwest Research Institute discovered a towering plume of water vapor being ejected from the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The water column emitted by the moon extends for more than 9,<> kilometers, which is approximately the distance from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires in Argentina.
The James Webb telescope gave scientists a direct look, for the first time, at how this emission is fed by the water supply of the Saturn system and its entire rings. The data will help inform future solar system satellite missions that will explore the depth of the subsurface ocean.