Stellar Data on Enceladus' Plume

New structure, density and composition measurements of Enceladus' water plume were obtained when the Cassini spacecraft's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph observed the star zeta Orionis pass behind the plume Oct. 24, 2007, as seen in this animation.

Changes in the starlight as it dimmed while passing through the plume allowed the spectrograph to identify the plume's physical and chemical composition. The spectrograph detected four high-density gas streams composed of water vapor. The density of the water vapor is twice that of the broad plume of gas that surrounds each jet.

This measurement confirms the theoretical analysis performed prior to the flyby that showed it was safe for Cassini to fly very closely past Enceladus, even through part of the plume, during the March 12, 2008 flyby.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency to study Saturn and it's moons.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• NASA
• ESA
• Spacecraft
• Cassini
• Huygens
• Cassini-Huygens
• Saturn
• Moon
• Spectrograph
• Enceladus
• Encelade
• Plume
• Geiser