Tucson – Researchers have said that the eruptions on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, earlier thought to be geysers similar to jet might be the curtain-like geysers. The eruptions appeared like jet due to the optical illusions created because the researchers earlier looked through the fold present in the curtain.
Almost a year back, the scientists had mapped around 101 separate geysers that were found blowing out tiny particles of ice and water from the Enceladus’s surface.
The insight was made possible by the spacecraft Cassini that has been orbiting the planet Saturn in between its moon from 2004. The latest report published in the Journal Nature says that the new insight has changed the way scientists were looking at the geysers on Enceladus. Now, they think that these eruptions on the Enceladus can be diffuse curtains instead of the discrete jets.
The eruptions are coming from the fractures in the South Polar Region of the moon known as the tiger stripe fractures. However, the new study has named the geyser phantom jets caused due to optical illusions.
The participating scientist on the mission of Cassini at the Tucson’s Planetary Science Institute and the lead author of the study, Joseph Spitale, has said that the observed activities suggest curtain eruptions.
A Biosphere Existence Possible on Enceladus
These eruptions are not the intermittent geysers, and the images provided by Cassini reveal most of the eruptions clearly. Thus, the new study concludes that the energy-releasing chemical reactions known to possess the potential to support a complete biosphere can be possible on the icy Enceladus moon of Saturn. It has revived the hopes of the scientists that a host for life away from the Earth can exist.
Scientists believe that the active hydrothermal vents can be existent on the seafloor of Enceladus, which makes it capable of giving rise to first life forms similar to Earth. The powerful geysers on Enceladus have made the scientists believe that there is a strong possibility of the underground ocean on the Saturn’s moon.
