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Space & Astronomy

Enceladus thought to have fizzy ocean

By T.K. Randall
January 29, 2011 · Comment icon 14 comments

Image Credit: Michael Carroll
New evidence suggests Saturn's moon Enceladus is home to an ocean that fizzes like a soft drink.
Scientists also believe that if true the ocean could be friendly to microbial life. "Geophysicists expected this little world to be a lump of ice, cold, dead, and uninteresting," NASA's Dennis Matson has said. "Boy, were we surprised!"
For years researchers have been debating whether Enceladus, a tiny moon floating just outside Saturn's rings, is home to a vast underground ocean. Is it wet--or not? Now, new evidence is tipping the scales. Not only does Enceladus likely have an ocean, that ocean is probably fizzy like a soft drink and could be friendly to microbial life.


Source: NASA | Comments (14)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #5 Posted by stevewinn 14 years ago
we all want to know the answer to the question does life exist beyond planet earth. Enceladus, Europa and Titan all excellent contenders to answer the question, yet with what little money space agencies have - they spend it going to Mars. sending rover after rover, lander after lander. with two thirds of probes sent to mars crashing or burning up. going to and landing on a moon would be much easier, (right or wrong) we should have been on these moons at least ten years ago imagine if we had been there - and found life - money for space exploration would have flooded in, and everyone would have... [More]
Comment icon #6 Posted by Twinkle Arora is back 14 years ago
Thats what we call a discovery, I am just waiting now until that Soda Can is opened
Comment icon #7 Posted by Lookin-up 14 years ago
Hydrochloric acid can fizz. Gonna find life there?
Comment icon #8 Posted by Evilution13 14 years ago
Maybe. They've found microbes happily thriving away in sulphuric acid before.
Comment icon #9 Posted by Phox 14 years ago
There is a chance living organism like fish could live there. There is even a chance that intelligent amphibious life lives there. The ramifications are amazing, that there is two intelligent species living so close to each. One space age and the other primitive and cut off from the rest of the sol system. There is many possibilities considering we can see under that thick ice. But I will not get my hopes up, the I best we can hope for is just fish. If there isn't any organism, that is the biggest pit stop in the solar system for fresh clean water which can be used to restock once humanity rea... [More]
Comment icon #10 Posted by Nightmarescars 14 years ago
Wow that is an awesome and amazing discovery, hopefully the next discovery will be actual organisms
Comment icon #11 Posted by Widdekind 14 years ago
(1) Smaller, inner moon Mimas experiences 2/3rds more Tidal Acceleration than bigger, outer moon Enceladus The Gravity Force is Fg = G MJupiter mmoon / r2. The Differential Gravity ("Tidal") Force, therefore, is dFg = d(Fg)/dr x D, where D is the diameter of the moon. For, since the Gravity Force decreases steadily, with increasing separation distance, the Gravity Force on the inside limb of the moon is larger than that on the outside limb of the moon. The actual Differential Gravity ("Tidal") Force is simply the difference, between the Gravity Forces affecting each opposite face of the moon. ... [More]
Comment icon #12 Posted by Widdekind 14 years ago
I think I made a slight mistake -- the leading and sides of Mimas look 'wind-chill cooled'. Such is more consistent, with a 'wind-chill effect', of a 'ring dust wind', which is 'thin', and sweeps around the sides of the moon, as it passes through Saturn's rings:
Comment icon #13 Posted by AsG1989 14 years ago
soda lake from super mario world
Comment icon #14 Posted by Consumer 14 years ago
If i'm not mistaken I thought I saw words like "suggests" and "could be" in this article...screw it, lets put on our shoes and run with it.


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