Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers from the Southwest Research Institute discovered a towering plume of water vapor being ejected from the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
According to the results of the discovery, which will be published in the journal "Nature Astronomy", the water column emitted by Enceladus extends for more than 9,<> kilometers, which is approximately the distance from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires in Argentina, or an extension equivalent to the distance from the United States to Japan, according to a report by the newspaper "Daily Mail".
On the other hand, the NASA statement said that it is not the first time such a water emission has been seen at such a vast distance, but 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.
Cassini explored Saturn and its moons and sampled water ejected by Enceladus (NASA)
Enceladus is a huge reservoir of water
Saturn has more than 100 moons, but Enceladus is a moon with a liquid water ocean about 4% of Earth's volume and only 503.72 kilometers wide, one of the most exciting scientific goals in our solar system in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Enceladus is one of the few sites in our solar system that contains liquid water, along with Earth and Jupiter's moon Europa, making it an important target for astrobiologists.
In addition, Enceladus appears in space as a beautiful ball of white, covered in a layer of ice no less than 19.3 kilometers thick, orbiting Saturn between the orbits of two other moons, Mimas and Tethys. As it orbits Saturn, the moon constantly ejects water molecules, which form a reservoir of salt water located between the moon's icy outer crust and its rocky core.
According to the NASA statement, observatories have previously determined that jets stretch for hundreds of kilometers from the lunar surface, with geyser-like volcanoes spewing jets of ice particles, water vapor and organic chemicals from cracks on the moon that are informally called "tiger lines."
Enceladus is one of the few objects in our solar system that contains liquid water (Getty Images)
Enceladus Poll
According to a statement from the Southwest Research Institute, during the 13-year reconnaissance period of the Saturn system, the Cassini spacecraft discovered that Enceladus has an undersurface ocean of liquid water, and Cassini analyzed the samples as columns of ice grains and the emission of water vapor into space from cracks in the moon's icy surface.
Cassini has spent more than a decade exploring the Saturn system, and not only photographing the Enceladus plumes for the first time, but also flew directly and sampled, as Cassini's location within the Saturn system provided invaluable insights into this distant moon, but James Webb's unique vision offers a new context.
Christopher Glenn, a leading expert in extraterrestrial oceanography, says: "Enceladus is one of the most dynamic objects in the solar system, a key target in humanity's search for extraterrestrial life."
Enceladus water column extends for more than 9,<> kilometers, which is equivalent to the distance between the United States and Japan (French)
Explore the towering water column
Study lead author Geronimo Villanueva of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said: "When I was looking at the data, at first, I was thinking I might be wrong, but it was very remarkable when we discovered a plume of water more than 20 times the size of the Moon, and the water plume extends far beyond its launch zone at the moon's south pole."
Villanueva adds, "It wasn't the length of the shaft that piqued the researchers, but the flow rate of water vapor was 299 litres per second, which is also impressive, because at this rate, you can fill an Olympic-sized pool in just two hours. In comparison, doing this with a garden hose on the ground will take more than two weeks.
In the coming years, the Webb telescope will serve as the primary observation tool for Enceladus, and the telescope's data will help inform future solar system satellite missions that will explore the depth of the subsurface ocean, how thick the ice crust is, and provide a direct measurement of how water evolves and changes over time in the massive Enceladus plume.