The ice blasting from Saturn's moon Enceladus is stranger than scientists realized

What happened

Cassini Found Surprisingly Diverse Ice Grains Between 2004 and 2017, the Cosmic Dust Analyzer on NASA's Cassini spacecraft measured the composition of individual ice particles in Saturn's E-ring. Share: Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIN Email FULL STORY Saturn's moon Enceladus is covered in ice, but beneath that frozen shell lies a global ocean.

Near the moon's south pole, fractures in the crust release water vapor and ice particles into space. Those particles give scientists an unusual way to study an alien ocean without having to drill through kilometers of ice.

That ring is continually supplied with material erupting from Enceladus. A team led by Prof Frank Postberg at Freie Universität Berlin examined 961 mass spectra from salt-rich grains known as Type 3 particles. Some were especially rich in sodium chloride, while others contained higher amounts of carbonates, phosphates or potassium chloride.