A large plume of water vapor has been identified around Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, using the James Webb Telescope. The satellite could harbor life, scientists say.
A huge plume of water vapor in the middle of the solar system. The size of the clump of water expelled by Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, has been reassessed thanks to new images provided by the James Webb telescope. Scientists believe that this satellite is one of the best hopes for supporting life outside the Earth, in particular thanks to the significant presence of water and complex organic compounds on its soil.
Astrophysicists have already known since 2005 that water emanates from Enceladus thanks to powerful geysers located at its South Pole, but the size of this cloud of water was probably underestimated until the new images provided recently. .
“When I looked at the data, at first I thought I must be wrong. It was so shocking to detect a plume of water more than 20 times the size of this moon,” says the author. principal of the NASA study, Geronimo Villanueva, in a press release.
300 liters of water expelled per second
Geysers also expel water very quickly. On one of them, the scientific team working on the project estimates that the water was coming out at almost 300 liters per second, enough to “fill an Olympic swimming pool in just over two hours”. says NASA.
Scientists already have a fairly extensive knowledge of Enceladus, whose geysers were flown over by the Cassini-Huygens probe, which explored Saturn and its surroundings between 1997 and 2017.
The James Webb telescope, launched in 2021, however, makes it possible to clarify, thanks to its unprecedented power, certain observations within the solar system.
Source: BFM TV
