Liquid water on Enceladus from observations of ammonia and 40Ar in the plume

被引：425

作者：

Waite, J. H., Jr. ^{[1
]}

Lewis, W. S. ^{[1
]}

Magee, B. A. ^{[1
]}

Lunine, J. I. ^{[2
]}

McKinnon, W. B. ^{[3
]}

Glein, C. R. ^{[4
]}

Mousis, O. ^{[2
,5
]}

Young, D. T. ^{[1
]}

Brockwell, T. ^{[1
]}

Westlake, J. ^{[1
]}

Nguyen, M. -J. ^{[1
]}

Teolis, B. D. ^{[1
]}

Niemann, B. ^{[6
]}

McNutt, R. L., Jr. ^{[7
]}

Perry, M. ^{[7
]}

Ip, W. -H. ^{[8
,9
]}

机构：

[1] SW Res Inst, San Antonio, TX 78228 USA

[2] Univ Arizona, Lunar & Planetary Lab, Tucson, AZ 85721 USA

[3] Washington Univ, Dept Earth & Planetary Sci, St Louis, MO 63130 USA

[4] Arizona State Univ, Sch Earth & Space Explorat, Tempe, AZ 85287 USA

[5] Observ Besancon, Inst UTINAM, CNRS, UMR 6213, F-25010 Besancon, France

[6] NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA

[7] Johns Hopkins Univ, Appl Phys Lab, Laurel, MD 20723 USA

[8] Natl Cent Univ, Inst Astron, Chungli 32054, Taiwan

[9] Natl Cent Univ, Inst Space Sci, Chungli 32054, Taiwan

来源：

NATURE | 2009年 / 460卷 / 7254期

关键词：

NEUTRAL MASS-SPECTROMETER; CASSINI ION; SOUTH-POLE; ORIGIN; ABUNDANCES; ATMOSPHERE; VOLATILES; DEUTERIUM; RESERVOIR; SURFACE;

D O I：

10.1038/nature08153

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

Jets of water ice from surface fractures near the south pole(1) of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus produce a plume of gas and particles(2-5). The source of the jets may be a liquid water region under the ice shell-as suggested most recently by the discovery of salts in E-ring particles derived from the plume(6)-or warm ice that is heated, causing dissociation of clathrate hydrates(7). Here we report that ammonia is present in the plume, along with various organic compounds, deuterium and, very probably, Ar-40. The presence of ammonia provides strong evidence for the existence of at least some liquid water, given that temperatures in excess of 180 K have been measured near the fractures from which the jets emanate(8). We conclude, from the overall composition of the material, that the plume derives from both a liquid reservoir (or from ice that in recent geological time has been in contact with such a reservoir) as well as from degassing, volatile-charged ice.

引用

页码：487 / 490

页数：4

共 30 条

[1]

Bockelée-Morvan D, 2004, SPACE SCI S, P391

[2] Formation of the Galilean satellites: Conditions of accretion [J].