Webb Maps Surprisingly Large Plume Jetting From Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, L. Hustak (STScI) Science: G. Villanueva (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)

are revealing details into how one of Saturn’s moon’s feeds a water supply to the entire system of the ringed planet. Enceladus, a prime candidate in the search for life elsewhere in our solar system, is a small moon about four percent the size of Earth. New images from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) have revealed a water vapor plume jetting from the southern pole of Enceladus, extending out 20 times the size of the moon itself. The Integral Field Unit (IFU) aboard the NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) also provided insights into how the water from Enceladus feeds the rest of its surrounding environment.

« Webb Maps Surprisingly Large Plume Jetting From Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

Credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, G. Villanueva (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

An image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows a water vapor plume jetting from the southern pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, extending out 20 times the size of the moon itself. The inset, an image from the Cassini orbiter, emphasizes how small Enceladus appears in the Webb image compared to the water plume.

« Webb Maps Surprisingly Large Plume Jetting From Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

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