Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, has been studied in recent years by the Cassini space probe. Recently it was talked about for the extraordinary jets of water and ice that rise up from the south polar region of Enceladus, because Cassini detected organic materials. The scientists, however, also focused their attention on dusty plasma, a condition observed for the first time, that those jets contain.
A team of scientists working with the Cassini mission has examined the data collected by various instruments of the spacecraft collected during four flybys occurred in 2008. Those data revealed a high density of plasma in the jets coming from Enceladus but generally the density of free electrons is much lower than the ions density while in this case both densities were high.
According to scientists, the Sun’s ultraviolet light strips electrons from the gas and other material in the jets, creating a cloud of free electrons. When nanograins are ejected from Enceladus and move through this charged cloud, they collect the electrons creating the plasma.
According to the scientists those dust particles have a size ranging from a nanometer to a micrometer. Those nanograins contain a quantity of water molecules attached together. At least half of the electrons, which have a negative charge, attach themselves to the dust and their interaction with the positively charged particles decelerate the ions.
The dust has a charge and behaves as part of the plasma so it’s in the state of dusty plasma rather than normal plasma containing dust.
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This dusty plasma from Enceladus may influence Saturn’s magnetosphere. The Cassini spacecraft has discovered the Saturn kilometric Radiation (SKR), whose presence was shrouded in mystery. Changes in plasma and radio waves around Saturn happen with precision and according to the latest studies it’s the nanograins from Enceladus which influence those emissions.
Dusty plasma may exist in comets tails, in the dust rings around the Sun and also in the nebulae, places where it’s difficult to study it. Finding it near Enceladus is an important opportunity to examine it directly. The implications of this finding are still to be understood.
