Interstellar Medium and Astrochemistry
News
JWST Molecular Mapping And Characterization Of Enceladus’ Water Plume Feeding Its Torus
Enceladus is a prime target in the search for life in our solar system, having an active plume likely connected to a large liquid water subsurface ocean.
Using the sensitive NIRSpec instrument onboard JWST, we searched for organic compounds and characterized the plume’s composition and structure. The observations directly sample the fluorescence emissions of H2O and reveal an extraordinarily extensive plume (up to 10,000 km or 40 Enceladus radii) at cryogenic temperatures (25 K) embedded in a large bath of emission originating from Enceladus’ torus.
At the INAF in Rome two fragments of the asteroid Ryugu, 4 billion years old
Read the news (time.news)
Personnel
Mario Accolla, Giuseppe Baratta, Giuseppe Leto, Maria Elisabetta Palumbo, Carlotta Scirè
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