NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently observed a large water vapor plume being jetted from Saturn’s moon Enceladus that spans over 9,600 kilometers, or long enough to stretch from Ireland to Japan. This ocean world is just 4% the size of Earth and sandwiched between its icy outer crust and core is a reservoir of salty water.
Scientists were able to determine that water vapor is gushing out of the plume at around 300 liters per second, which could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in a few hours. They also discovered that Enceladus is spewing phosphorous, a prerequisite for life as we know it. Phosphate could exist on Enceladus in much higher concentrations compared to Earth and possibly in the icy oceans of other planets where alkaline water can interact with rocks.
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In the coming years Webb will serve as the primary tool for observing the ocean moon Enceladus, and discoveries from Webb will help inform future Solar System satellite missions that will look to explore the depth of the subsurface ocean, how thick the ice crust is, and more,” said the ESA.
