Enceladus's Fault Lines are Responsible for its Plumes

The Search for Life in our Solar System leads seekers to strange places. From our Earthbound viewpoint, an ice-covered moon orbiting a gas giant far from the Sun can seem like a strange place to search for life. But underneath all that ice sits a vast ocean. Despite the huge distance between the moon and the Sun and despite the thick ice cap, the water is warm.

Geysers erupt from Enceladus’ Tiger Stripes in this image from the Cassini spacecraft. Image Credit: By NASA/JPL/SSI – http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia11688.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15592605at the moon’s prominent Tiger Stripe features allow plumes of water from Enceladus to escape into space. It’s published in Nature Geoscience and titled “The plumes above the Tiger Stripes aren’t stable and continuous.

Models are more effective as they’re fed more detailed and accurate data. Berne and his co-researchers built a numerical model that simulates the strike-skip faults on Enceladus. They included friction, compressional forces and shear forces. The numerical model showed the faults acting in concert with the changing plumes. This strongly suggests that Enceladus’ orbit and the tidal forces acting on the moon cause the strike-slip faults to open and close.

The research team’s work and previous research into the Tiger Stripes by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory both support the idea that the plumes come from these strike-slip faults. Enceladus gets most of its attention because of its potential to support life. The plumes themselves aren’t part of what life needs, but they’re a window into the moon’s potential habitability.

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