Cassini Evidence Suggests Enceladus Harbors Water
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Astronomers say it is likely that Saturn's moon Enceladus hides a large body of liquid water just beneath its icy surface, BBC News reported.
More data returned from the Cassini probe, which periodically sweeps past the little moon, has provided even more evidence backing the idea of a sub-surface sea below the moon’s surface.
Experts theorize that it is the detection of negatively charged water molecules in the atmosphere of Enceladus. Such ions on Earth are often seen where liquid water is in motion, like waterfalls or crashing ocean waves.
Enceladus may not have any "rollers" but it does have a very active region near its south pole where water vapor and ice particles shoot through cracks in the surface and rise high into the moon’s atmosphere.
Andrew Coates from University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory said they have seen water molecules that have additional electrons added.
Coates told BBC News there are only two ways they could be added -- from the ambient plasma environment, or from friction as water clusters come out of the jets, like rubbing a balloon and sticking it on the ceiling.
Image Caption: False color Cassini image of jets in the southern hemisphere of Enceladus. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
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