Porous Core on Saturn's Moon Enceladus Might Have Heated Underground Ocean
A new study suggests that the secret behind the geysers on Enceladus that were identified by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2005 lies in the moon's core.
Contrary to previous theories about the geysers, which scientists believed were due to tidal forces on the small moon, researchers now suspect that this activity comes from beneath the thin icy shell of one of Saturn's natural satellites.
While tidal forces on Earth are affected by the moon and sun's gravitational pull, on Enceladus, it is mostly caused by Saturn. If the ocean was indeed kept warm by Saturn's tidal effects on the thin sheet of ice on this moon, the heat produced would not have been warm enough. Without other sources of heat, the ocean would have frozen over within 30 million years. Given that the solar system is 4.6 billion years old, it could not have been the cause.
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Researchers believe that it is heat emitted within the fragmented core of Enceladus that is keeping its underground ocean warm. The ocean located just beneath the natural satellite's icy shell 20 to 25 kilometers thick on average should be kept warm by such heat for billions of years.
According to the researchers, "an abnormally high heat power (more than 20 billion watts) is required, as well as a mechanism to focus endogenic [below-surface] activity at the south pole."
They suspect that tidal friction within the core could be producing additional heat. The core, which is said to be rocky and unconsolidated, allows water to pass through narrow and hot columns and would pop out of hotspots on the seafloor. The resulting friction is said to generate over 10 billion to 30 billion watts of heat. And such activity could continue for tens of millions or even billions of years.
More importantly, the new findings indicate that this heat provides the right kind of conditions for life to flourish.
Enceladus is small, only 314 miles wide. It is small enough to fit within the state of Arizona.
