Comments on: Saturn weather forecast: rings, with light rain from Enceladus

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:25:19 +0000

@ ^ Lugosi : It doesn’t. Enceladus just contains alot of it to start with.

Would be my guess anyhow.

BTW. Enceladus clip via AggManUK linked to my name for this comment.

By: Lugosi

Lugosi — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:05:53 +0000

Presumably this has been going on for billions if years, yet Enceladus hasn’t disappeared. So how does it replenish its supply of water?

By: Saturn's water mystery finally 'solved' – Times of India | What's New UK

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:26:20 +0000

[...] solved a 14-year mystery by discovering the source of the water in Saturn's upper atmosphere.Saturn weather forecast: rings, with light rain from EnceladusDiscover Magazine [...]

By: Enceladus Solves Mystery « Space « Science Today: Beyond the Headlines

Enceladus Solves Mystery « Space « Science Today: Beyond the Headlines — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:04:10 +0000

[...] Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, puts this into perspective in his blog on Discover: [...]

By: JMW

JMW — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:56:48 +0000

Hm. Is there a music group of astronomers called the “E-Ring Band”?

By: Peter Davey

Peter Davey — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:09:53 +0000

To quote from “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” : “Hot ice and wondrous strange snow.”

By: panini

panini — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:19:06 +0000

Love the twist about Titan at the end! IT’S LIFE!!!!!

By: Stan9fromouterspace

Stan9fromouterspace — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:18:19 +0000

Huh huh huhhuhhuhhuh… he said “Enceladusian.”

By: Camerasinger

Camerasinger — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:32:02 +0000

Ah but water may also be heavier on Saturn. Published values of the force of gravity on Saturn are between 0.98 and 1.1 g.

By: Sito - Detalles de boda

Sito - Detalles de boda — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:29:36 +0000

Case closed? It read in your article I think it’s a case abeirto more than ever, is not it?

By: DrFlimmer

DrFlimmer — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:53:46 +0000

@ #14 CR

Man, I wish I could live to be 300 just so that I can know what else future generations shall learn about this (and other) places in our own backyard!

And you would know the dogopus.

By: CR

CR — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:47:41 +0000

@11. Walter Sobchak:
“Ms. LeQuella” and “she.” Um, you might want to follow Larian’s link a little further…
…………..
As for this entry, I am more and more finding the Saturn system to be my favorite within our solar system. Jupiter’s system is also cool, and I’ve always had a spot for Neptune and its big moon Triton, but the more we learn about Saturn & its moons, the more intrigued I get. Man, I wish I could live to be 300 just so that I can know what else future generations shall learn about this (and other) places in our own backyard!

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:25:41 +0000

@2. Anon :

The water on Titan could be created by microbes digesting the methane seas… Or is that just wishful thinking?

Well that’s a nice idea but if so how would that water – which you’d expect to freeze instantly into the ice phase rise into Titan’s upper atmosphere? They’d have to be excreting it as steam!

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 03:15:37 +0000

It’s known that Saturn’s giant moon Titan has water in its upper atmosphere as well. According to the astronomers who made these observations, their models show that the rain from Enceladus onto Titan is not enough to account for what’s seen there; they’d need 5 – 20 times as much water to explain Titan. So clearly there must be some other source of water for that, and whatever it is it doesn’t reach Saturn or else more water would be seen there as well. What could it be? No one knows.

Cyrovulcanism?

Titan is fairly ice rich isn’t it? If the mantle of Titan has plumes via an active core – like Earth’s but perhaps caused by gravitational tides rather than radioactive element decay then maybe we have Titanian volcanoes erupting water vapour and water “ash” and that might explain that? Or would it?

Are any Titanian volcanoes known or suspected and have calculations or models been made for this possibility?

Great write up of fascinating science here too btw.

By: Walter Sobchak

Walter Sobchak — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 02:50:52 +0000

“Did I say, “Case closed”? Yeah, honestly, you can never say that in science. That’s why it’s fun!”

That statement is not true either. The Earth’s climate is so well understood and modeled for the next century, that it is case closed. Just ask Ms. LeQuella, she will tell you.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:30:56 +0000

This is nice, since (last I checked) Saturn’s ionosphere “doesn’t work”–electron density isn’t as high as expected–and water quenching was one explanation. (One paper: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007GeoRL..3412202M ..Luke Moore has done a lot on this.)

By: Nick (Matzke)

Nick (Matzke) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:39:50 +0000

Hi Phil! Great post! Can I ask a dumb question as a non-astronomer? Is there any chance that water from Enceladus has contributed any substantial mass to Saturn’s rings? (other than the E-ring, I mean) Might this explain some of the evidence that they look bright and young?

Cheers!
Nick

By: zadoc

zadoc — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:22:42 +0000

Saturn has an amazing system, and I really think that Titan and Enceladus warrant extensive study, with more probes, and perhaps landing devices.

POLL: What do you think the most interesting place to study is in our solar system?
http://www.wepolls.com/p/1585898

By: Philip Fiore's TechnoBlog » Philip Fiore’s TechnoBlog | Technology news

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 22:47:00 +0000

[...] scope spies soggy, stupendous Saturnian doughnutRegisterScientific American (blog) -io9 -Discover Magazine (blog)all 17 news [...]

By: Larian LeQuella

Larian LeQuella — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:21:20 +0000

Sometimes it’s fun when they are long, complicated, involve subtle and difficult layers, and require a vast effort to unravel.

Unless you watch Fox News… Then it needs to be black and white, and must be explianed in 15 seconds using monosyllabic words…

On a serious note, I wonder what sort of chemistry would be required to make that Titanian water. Who hoo! A mystery!

By: Enceladus rains water onto Saturn – Astronomy Magazine | ZESH.NET

Enceladus rains water onto Saturn – Astronomy Magazine | ZESH.NET — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:04:58 +0000

[...] American (blog)Mystery Solved: Water on Saturn Comes From Icy Moon 'Rain'Space.comDiscover Magazine (blog) -Register -Houston Chronicle (blog)all 12 news [...]

By: VinceRN

VinceRN — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:43:22 +0000

South poles?

By: Justin Browne

Justin Browne — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:43:00 +0000

Your calculation is off by a bit. There are 6.02*10^23 molecules per mole.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro_constant
That means about 7.5 kg of water rain down on Saturn per second, if I’m correct.

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:38:03 +0000

The water on Titan could be created by microbes digesting the methane seas… Or is that just wishful thinking?

By: MoleRat

MoleRat — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:15:58 +0000

The footnote at the bottom of the post is incorrect. The number of molecules per mole is 6.022 * 10^23, not 1.02 * 10^23 as reported. Similarly, it should be 7.5 kg/s not 45 kg/s.