Hot Spots on Enceladus

[n2doc]

A false-color temperature map indicates hot spots along fissures in the "tiger stripes" on Enceladus' surface. These are the "split ends" of the stripes known as Alexandria Sulcus and Cairo Sulcus.


Alan Boyle writes:Temperature readings from the Cassini orbiter support the view that warmth is welling up through cracks in the icy surface of Enceladus, one of Saturn's most intriguing moons.

The readings were taken by the 6.4-ton spacecraft's infrared spectrometer and high-resolution camera during an August flyby, and discussed today in a series of news releases and advisories. In an e-mailed alert, Cassini imaging team leader Carolyn Porco said a "phenomenal amount of heat is emerging" through the south polar fractures known as tiger stripes.

The hot spots might not sound all that hot: The warmest areas registered surface temperatures of 120 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, or 190 Kelvin. But Porco said that's staggeringly higher than the coldest temperatures in the south polar terrain, which dip as low as 365 degrees below zero F (52 Kelvin). She called particular attention to a warm fissure known as Damascus Sulcus.

more

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/30/5555919-see-whats-hot-on-saturn-moon

[Ian David]

1. Oh, shit. It's a big W. They've got Loyal-Bushie organisms under the ice.

Or a giant scorpion mugging someone.

[lillypaddle]

2. Hey! I thought this was about hot spots

to get enchiladas! I'm so confused ....

[Thor_MN]

3. Just as long as they aren't Hot Pockets

[pokerfan]

5. Hot Pockets!

[Grown2Hate]

4. So when do we get to send a probe dedicated to Enceladus so that we can land

and drill to finally find life outside of Earth? I personally can't WAIT.

[14thColony]

6. A big development

It would tend to support the hypothesis that Enceladus' ocean isn't all that far below the ice crust -- certainly not the tens of kilometers some theorize, if the source of the heat (which of course I'm assuming to be warm ocean water) is still that strongly seen so close to the surface. To me this strongly supports an ice crust a few tens or maybe hundreds of meters thick, shallow enough for relatively warm ocean water to surge up to the surface when cracks form.

A (relatively) warm global ocean, shielded from radiation by an ice shield, a surface now believed to be covered with organic molecules which would therefore likely have permeated the ocean as well over billions of years. I'd say at this point if there ISN'T life on Enceladus, THEN we have some major explaining to do...