What is Enceladus known for?

Cassini revealed the dramatic truth: Enceladus is an active moon that hides a global ocean of liquid salty water beneath its crust. They all point to the possibility of a habitable ocean world well beyond Earth’s habitable zone. Planetary scientists now have Enceladus to consider as a possible habitat for life.”

What is Enceladus named after?

Naming. Enceladus is named after the giant Enceladus of Greek mythology. The name, like the names of each of the first seven satellites of Saturn to be discovered, was suggested by William Herschel’s son John Herschel in his 1847 publication Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope.

Is there methane on Enceladus?

An unknown methane-producing process is likely at work in the hidden ocean beneath the icy shell of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, suggests a new study published in Nature Astronomy by scientists at the University of Arizona and Paris Sciences & Lettres University.

Why is Enceladus so cold?

Enceladus is one of the coldest places in the Saturn system because its extremely bright surface reflects 80 percent of the sunlight that hits it, so only 20 percent is available to heat the surface. As on Earth, the poles should be even colder than the equator because the sun shines at such an oblique angle there.

How does Enceladus have water?

This water comes from a global, liquid ocean concealed beneath Enceladus’ fissured crust. As Cassini flew through Enceladus’ plumes between 2008 to 2015, its mass spectrometer found a variety of organic molecules — building blocks of life — coming from the moon’s ocean.

How deep is the ocean on Enceladus?

about 25 miles
The ocean is about 25 miles/40km deep—according to NASA’s Cassini probe—which is vastly deeper than Earth’s ocean. “The pressure and temperature differences between the Enceladus ocean floor and the ice cap above must be tremendous,” writes astrobiologist Dr. Arik Kershenbaum in The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Is Enceladus habitable?

From a distance, Saturn’s moon Enceladus is nothing special. That first close flyby revealed an unexpected world with a subsurface ocean and plumes of water ice and vapor erupting from the moon’s south polar region, making it one of the most potentially habitable places of the Solar System.

Can life survive on Enceladus?

Bottom line: A new study from Southwest Research Institute shows that the interior of Saturn’s ocean moon Enceladus is more geochemically complex that previously thought, making the ocean quite habitable for possible life.

Is there radiation on Enceladus?

Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) that strike both Enceladus’ surface and the lofted icy particles produce ionizing radiation in the form of high-energy electrons, protons, gamma rays, neutrons and muons. An additional source of ionizing radiation is the population of energetic charged particles in Saturn’s magnetosphere.

Can humans live Enceladus?

Bottom line: It turns out that Enceladus’ subsurface ocean is just the right age to support life, according to a new study. Together with what we already know about its potential habitability, this makes Enceladus even more enticing in the search for life elsewhere in the solar system.

How long is a year on Enceladus?

33 hours
Enceladus/Orbital period

Can we breathe on Enceladus?

There is no available oxygen to work with, and a tremendous amount of pressure to contend with if an organism hopes to derive energy from the chemical reaction between Enceladus’ subsurface ocean and its rocky core.