A report on Enceladus and Cryovolcano

View of trailing hemisphere in natural color

Doom Mons, one of the most reliably identified cryovolcanoes on Saturn's moon Titan

Voyager 2 view of Enceladus in 1981: Samarkand Sulci vertical grooves (lower center); Ali Baba and Aladdin craters (upper left)

Plumes of Enceladus, feeding Saturn's E Ring, seem to arise from the "Tiger Stripes" near the south pole.

Enceladus's orbit (red) – Saturn's north pole view

Possible origins of methane found in plumes

Eruptions on Enceladus look like discrete jets, but may be "curtain eruptions" instead
( video animation)

$South polar view of the anti-Saturn hemisphere, with fractured areas in blue (false color)$

Enceladus – tilted terminator – north is up

Enceladus – possibility of fresh ice detected (September 18, 2020)

Enceladus – Infrared map view (September 29, 2020)

$View of Enceladus's Europa-like surface with the Labtayt Sulci fractures at center and the Ebony and Cufa dorsa at lower left, imaged by Cassini on February 17, 2005$

Y-shaped discontinuities, imaged February 15, 2016

One possible scheme for Enceladus's cryovolcanism

A model of the interior of Enceladus: silicate core (brown); water-ice-rich mantle (white); a proposed diapir under the south pole (noted in the mantle (yellow) and core (red))

Artist's impression of a global subsurface ocean of liquid water ([[:File:PIA20013-Enceladus-SaturnMoon-ArtistConcept-20151026.jpg|updated and better scaled version]])

Enceladus – organics on ice grains (artist concept)

Chemical composition of Enceladus's plumes

$Heat map of the south polar fractures, dubbed 'tiger stripes'$

Enceladus (artist concept; February 24, 2020)

Artist's impression of possible hydrothermal activity on Enceladus's ocean floor

Animated 3D model of the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft

Enceladus orbiting within Saturn's E ring

Enceladus geyser tendrils - comparison of images ("a";"c") with computer simulations

Enceladus south polar region - locations of most active tendril-producing geysers

Enceladus and south polar jets (April 13, 2017).

Plumes above the limb of Enceladus feeding the E ring

Size comparison of Earth, the Moon, and Enceladus

A size comparison of Enceladus against the British Isles.

In addition, although they are not known to form volcanoes, ice geysers have been observed on Enceladus and potentially Triton.

- Cryovolcano

Cryovolcanoes near the south pole shoot geyser-like jets of water vapor, molecular hydrogen, other volatiles, and solid material, including sodium chloride crystals and ice particles, into space, totaling about 200 kg per second.

- Enceladus

3 related topics with Alpha

Pictured in 2012 in natural color. The thick atmosphere is orange due to a dense haze.

Titan (moon)

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Largest moon of Saturn and the second-largest natural satellite in the Solar System.

Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan in 1655.

Titan's orbit (highlighted in red) among the other large inner moons of Saturn. The moons outside its orbit are (from the outside to the inside) Iapetus and Hyperion; those inside are Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, and Mimas.

True-color image of layers of haze in Titan's atmosphere

Trace organic gases in Titan's atmosphere—HNC (left) and HC3N (right).

False-color Cassini radar mosaic of Titan's north polar region. Blue coloring indicates low radar reflectivity, caused by hydrocarbon seas, lakes and tributary networks filled with liquid ethane, methane and dissolved . About half of the large body at lower left, Kraken Mare, is shown. Ligeia Mare is at lower right.

Mosaic of three Huygens images of channel system on Titan

Near-infrared radiation from the Sun reflecting off Titan's hydrocarbon seas

Radar image of a 139 km-diameter impact crater on Titan's surface, showing a smooth floor, rugged rim, and possibly a central peak.

Ligeia Mare – SAR and clearer despeckled views.

Near-infrared image of Tortola Facula, thought to be a possible cryovolcano

False-color VIMS image of the possible cryovolcano Sotra Patera, combined with a 3D map based on radar data, showing 1000-meter-high peaks and a 1500-meter-deep crater.

Sand dunes in the Namib Desert on Earth (top), compared with dunes in Belet on Titan

Titan - three dust storms detected in 2009–2010.

Voyager 1 view of haze on Titan's limb (1980)

Cassini's Titan flyby radio signal studies (artist's concept)

The balloon proposed for the Titan Saturn System Mission (artistic rendition)

Global map of Titan – with IAU labels (August 2016).

The geologically young surface is generally smooth, with few impact craters, although mountains and several possible cryovolcanoes have been found.

The name Titan, and the names of all seven satellites of Saturn then known, came from John Herschel (son of William Herschel, discoverer of two other Saturnian moons, Mimas and Enceladus), in his 1847 publication Results of Astronomical Observations Made during the Years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8, at the Cape of Good Hope.

Cassini view of Enceladus's south pole. The tiger stripes, from lower left to upper right, are the Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Alexandria and Camphor sulci.

Tiger stripes (Enceladus)

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Composite map of the southern hemisphere of Enceladus (2007)

Enceladus - South Pole - Geyser basin (August 10, 2014).

Enceladus - South Pole - Geysers spray water from many locations along the "tiger stripes".

Eruptions on Enceladus may seem to be "discrete" jets, but may be "curtain" eruptions instead (video animation)

The tiger stripes of Enceladus consist of four sub-parallel, linear depressions in the south polar region of the Saturnian moon.

Observations from the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) instrument showed the tiger stripes to have elevated surface temperatures, indicative of present-day cryovolcanism on Enceladus centered on the tiger stripes.

Europa's trailing hemisphere in approximate natural colour. The prominent crater in the lower right is Pwyll and the darker regions are areas where Europa's primarily water ice surface has a higher mineral content. Imaged on 7 September 1996 by Galileo spacecraft.

Europa (moon)

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Smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, and the sixth-closest to the planet of all the 80 known moons of Jupiter.

Animation of the Laplace resonance of Io, Europa and Ganymede (conjunctions are highlighted by color changes)

Size comparison of Europa (lower left) with the Moon (top left) and Earth (right)

Approximate natural color (left) and enhanced color (right) Galileo view of leading hemisphere

Realistic-color Galileo mosaic of Europa's anti-Jovian hemisphere showing numerous lineae

$Enhanced-color view showing the intricate pattern of linear fractures on Europa's surface$

Europa - internal structure
(artwork; 25 May 2021)

Closeup views of Europa obtained on 26 September 1998; images clockwise from upper left show locations from north to south as indicated at lower left.

Water plumes on Europa detected by the Galileo space probe

Photo composite of suspected water plumes on Europa

Magnetic field around Europa. The red line shows a trajectory of the Galileo spacecraft during a typical flyby (E4 or E14).

A black smoker in the Atlantic Ocean. Driven by geothermal energy, this and other types of hydrothermal vents create chemical disequilibria that can provide energy sources for life.

Europa – possible effect of radiation on biosignature chemicals

In addition, the Hubble Space Telescope detected water vapor plumes similar to those observed on Saturn's moon Enceladus, which are thought to be caused by erupting cryogeysers.

Impurities in the water ice crust of Europa are presumed both to emerge from the interior as cryovolcanic events that resurface the body, and to accumulate from space as interplanetary dust.