Dec 31, 2024 09:18 PM
https://www.livescience.com/space/saturn...-enceladus
EXCERPTS: . . . when studying Enceladus, every detail really matters — which brings us to a new, very strange detail that scientists have their eye on: A weird, disappearing dark spot on this ice-capped moon. No one quite knows what it is yet, but it may tell us something about those plumes that could hold the precious building blocks of life we seek.
[...] the researchers think the dark spot appeared to be fading progressively because deposits from those icy Enceladus plumes might have covered it up. "We know the whole surface is covered by plume deposits — like little layers of ice building up over time," Phillips said.
Alas, in theory, this makes a lot of sense. But when you really think about it, there are some outstanding issues here.
For example, the team saw the dark spot fading over just a few years — this would imply that just a few years is long enough for ice plume deposits to create a sheet of ice thick enough to cover such a prominent spot. After all, it's visible from space! Yet, according to various calculations of the dark spot and models of the moon's plumes, Phillips says it should take something like 100 years to create a layer thick enough to cover this kind of spot... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . when studying Enceladus, every detail really matters — which brings us to a new, very strange detail that scientists have their eye on: A weird, disappearing dark spot on this ice-capped moon. No one quite knows what it is yet, but it may tell us something about those plumes that could hold the precious building blocks of life we seek.
[...] the researchers think the dark spot appeared to be fading progressively because deposits from those icy Enceladus plumes might have covered it up. "We know the whole surface is covered by plume deposits — like little layers of ice building up over time," Phillips said.
Alas, in theory, this makes a lot of sense. But when you really think about it, there are some outstanding issues here.
For example, the team saw the dark spot fading over just a few years — this would imply that just a few years is long enough for ice plume deposits to create a sheet of ice thick enough to cover such a prominent spot. After all, it's visible from space! Yet, according to various calculations of the dark spot and models of the moon's plumes, Phillips says it should take something like 100 years to create a layer thick enough to cover this kind of spot... (MORE - missing details)