So this one ’s , uh , a fleck left over . In a play to study how the plumes of Saturn ’s synodic month Enceladus work , researchers may need to canvass how we dump cosmonaut water in place .
The plumes of Enceladus were first spot by Cassini back in 2005 , and we believe they may originate from an ocean beneath the Sun Myung Moon ’s gelid surface . It ’s possible , withhydrothermal activityon its level , that this ocean could host life .
Breaking through go in the internal-combustion engine , the plume consist of liquid from this sea , which are then fire into infinite . Cassini was able to not only see these jets of liquid , but fly through them as well . Pretty neat . But we do n’t quite have intercourse how they do work , such as how they spread out in space .
A report inNew Scientist , however , advise an answer . They cite Ralph Lorenz from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland , who says that how we vent astronaut pee and waste water from fuel cells into infinite may be a alike process .
Speaking at the American Astronomical Society ’s meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences in Utah yesterday , he said that water dumped into space freezes chop-chop . How this freeze happens , and how it affect the ejected liquidity , could be a similar physical process to Enceladus .
“ These observance do n’t tell us directly what ’s happening on Enceladus , but they put up a sorting of keystone for our interpretations of what we ’re seeing on Enceladus and our design for a new mission to go there , ” enounce Lorenz .
Even more interestingly , previous observations of the Space Shuttle showed that some of this flash-frozen permissive waste impacted its tiles , making noticeable dents . If we sent a spacecraft through the plume of Enceladus , it might be potential to directly sample bug in this path .
learn blank toilets could also tell us how big meth mote in the plumes of Enceladus might grow . Science Newsnotes that in 1984 , a 60 - cm [ 24 - in ] icicle grew from a fuel cell vent of the Space Shuttle discovery . It ’s possible that as the water freezes as it descend up from Enceladus , it could be stash away biosignatures .
If we ever do get hold living on this moonshine of Saturn , may we ’ll have an unlikely source to thank .
