Tag Archive for 'Plume'

The JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft imaged Io, the most geologically active body in our Solar System, on February 3, 2024, from a distance of about 7,904 km (4,911 miles). Image credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS.

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Captures Stunning Images of Jupiter’s Moon Io

Feb 9, 2024 by Natali Anderson

On February 3, 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made a second close flyby of Io, the fifth of Jupiter’s moons and the third largest. Like the previous...

Enceladus’ tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon’s icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon’s south pole and creating Saturn’s mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here, a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. Tiger stripes are visible in false-color blue. Image credit: NASA / ESA / JPL / SSI / Cassini Imaging Team.

Enceladus’ Surface May Contain Relatively High Abundances of Pristine Organic Material

Dec 21, 2023 by News Staff

Enceladus, the sixth-biggest moon of Saturn, presents a remarkable opportunity in our Solar System for searching for evidence of extraterrestrial life,...

Illustration of plume activity on Enceladus. Image credit: Peter et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02160-0.

Planetary Researchers Detect Hydrogen Cyanide in Plume of Enceladus

Dec 17, 2023 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Cassini mission, planetary scientists have detected several compounds of strong importance to the habitability of Saturn’s icy...

Molecular hydrogen points to hydrothermal activity in an ocean beneath the icy surface of Enceladus. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Ice Plumes of Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus May Hold Amino Acids, Study Suggests

Dec 5, 2023 by News Staff

Enceladus is a prime target in the search for life in the Solar System, identified by NASA as the second-highest priority site for a flagship mission in...

Saturn’s moon Enceladus with a plume. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / Kevin M. Gill.

Phosphorus, Rare Building Block for Life, Discovered at Enceladus

Jun 15, 2023 by News Staff

Phosphorus has not previously been detected in oceans beyond those on Earth and this discovery provides a promising step forward in our understanding of...

Images from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) show a water vapor plume jetting from the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / G. Villanueva, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / A. Pagan, STScI.

Webb Observes Enceladus’ Water Vapor Plume

Jun 2, 2023 by News Staff

As Enceladus orbits rapidly around Saturn with a period of only 1.37 Earth days, the ejected water vapor is spread along and around its orbit, forming...

An artist’s impression of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft flying through plumes erupting from the south pole of Enceladus; these plumes are much like geysers and expel a combination of water vapor, ice grains, salts, methane and other organic molecules. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Detecting Extraterrestrial Life on Enceladus Could Be Achieved without Landing: Study

Jan 2, 2023 by News Staff

Enceladus, the sixth-biggest moon of Saturn, is a top candidate in the search for extraterrestrial life in the Solar System. An artist’s impression of...

Review of the mechanisms proposed in the literature to explain the emplacement of liquid reservoirs invoked to correspond to a variety of geological features at Europa’s surface. Image credit: Lesage et al., doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ac75bf.

Shallow Lakes in Europa’s Crust Could Erupt, Planetary Scientists Say

Oct 13, 2022 by News Staff

In the search for life beyond Earth, subsurface bodies of water in the outer Solar System are some of the most important targets. That’s why NASA and...

New Modeling Study Points toward Biological Origin of Enceladus’ Methane

Jul 7, 2021 by News Staff

Observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft established that Enceladus, the sixth-largest of Saturn’s moons, has a global subsurface ocean. An analysis...

Enceladus’ Subsurface Ocean Has Various Energy Sources for Microbial Life, Study Suggests

Dec 17, 2020 by News Staff

In a study published this month in the journal Icarus, planetary researchers from the United States and Germany modeled chemical processes in the subsurface...

This artist’s conception of Europa shows a hypothesized cryovolcanic eruption, in which briny water from within the icy shell blasts into space. Image credit: Justice Blaine Wainwright.

Europa’s Plumes May Originate from Near-Surface Brine Reservoirs, Not Global Ocean

Nov 11, 2020 by News Staff

Europa, the sixth of Jupiter’s moons and the fourth largest, has a subsurface ocean covered by an icy shell. Despite evidence for plumes on the icy moon,...

Composite image showing Io in radio (ALMA) and optical light (Voyager 1 and Galileo); the ALMA images show plumes of sulfur dioxide (in yellow); Jupiter is visible in the background (Hubble). Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / I. de Pater et al. / NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello / NASA / ESA.

ALMA Spots Volcanic Plumes on Jupiter’s Moon Io

Oct 22, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted airborne plumes of sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfur monoxide (SO), and...

Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

Venus is Still Geologically Active, New Research Suggests

Jul 21, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Maryland and the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich has identified 37 active circular volcano-tectonic...