Kempf’s refined estimate is that sodium salts account for between 0.5 percent and 2 percent of the mass of the E ring grains, the team reports in the Nature paper.
Assuming both Kempf’s and Schneider’s observations are correct, any reservoir of water inside Enceladus would have a low salt contact and woud not be in sufficient contact with the moon’s rocky core to leach much salt, Lunine says. “It has to leach some, given the detection” by Kempf and collaborators, he adds. “I could imagine a marginal case where pockets of liquid water today don't have strong contact with the rock core, even if they did in the past.”
According to Schneider, both his team and Kempf’s now agree that the jets of water vapor emanating from Enceladus’ jets shouldn’t be viewed as “near-surface geysers connected to an ocean” near the surface, as first proposed. The lack of sodium in the jets suggest that the jets arise from a gentle, gradual evaporation of water from a deep ocean rather than a more violent, geyser-like process from a liquid reservoir near the surface, he says.
ANKUSH KUMAR @ Jul 11, 2009 02:21:26 AM
ANKUSH KUMAR @ Jul 11, 2009 02:21:24 AM
TRENT of CA @ Jul 04, 2009 13:00:53 PM