Encased in an Icy Shell, the Ocean on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Appears to Be Churning
Buried beneath 20 kilometers of ice, the subsurface ocean of Enceladus—one of Saturn’s moons—appears to be churning with currents akin to those on Earth.
The theory, derived from the shape of Enceladus’s ice shell, challenges the current thinking that the moon’s global ocean is homogenous, apart from some vertical mixing driven by the warmth of the moon’s core. ...
The ocean on Enceladus is almost entirely unlike Earth’s. Earth’s ocean is relatively shallow (an average of 3.6 km deep), covers three-quarters of the planet’s surface, is warmer at the top from the sun’s rays and colder in the depths near the seafloor, and has currents that are affected by wind; Enceladus, meanwhile, appears to have a globe-spanning and completely subsurface ocean that is at least 30 km deep and is cooled at the top near the ice shell and warmed at the bottom by heat from the moon’s core. ...
Despite their differences, Caltech graduate student Ana Lobo ... suggests that oceans on Enceladus have currents akin to those on Earth. The work builds on measurements by Cassini as well as the research of Andrew Thompson, professor of environmental science and engineering, who has been studying the way that ice and water interact to drive ocean mixing around Antarctica. ...
