![]() ![]() According to Hemingway’s model, these new fissures would form in two parallel lines around 35 kilometers from the first, matching what we see on Enceladus.Ĭontinuing to explain the process, Hemingway proposed, “Once this secondary fracture initiates, the stresses concentrate in an increasingly broken, and therefore thinner and weaker, elastic shell. Slowly but surely, the mass of material began to weigh down the now broken ice sheet, causing it to bend, and leading it to crack for a second time. The water crystallized into snow and began to fall back to the surface where it collected on the two edges of the fissure. With the first fissure formed, the pressurized ocean exploded through the crack in a massive eruption. Those fractures start to erupt (c) and the cycle continues. As the shell bends, new fractures form about 35 kilometers from the first. “As a result, the first place that you’re going to get a failure is at one of the poles,” clarified Hemingway, “that’s the first fracture.” He continued, “I think it’s a coin toss whether the first failure happens at the south pole or the north pole, but once it happens, all of the subsequent activity then concentrates at that one pole.” Follow the LeaderĪfter the first fracture (a), the erupting snow begins to pile up and weigh down the moon’s icy shell (b). This action, called tidal heating, warmed the moon at its poles, where it led to thinner ice. Due to its elliptical orbit, Enceladus is repeatedly stretched and relaxed by Saturn’s gravity. However, the location of the first crack would not have been random. Hemingway described the process, “The tension is going to build as the freezing progresses until there’s a failure somewhere in the ice shell.” Eventually, the pressure became too much for the shell to handle and it cracked. This cooling caused some of the moon’s water to turn to ice, thickening the ice shell, and increasing pressure on the moon’s liquid interior. ![]() “Understanding the link between the ocean and the surface is really important,” continued Hemingway, “and that means understanding the nature of these tiger stripe fractures.” Explaining the First StripeĪccording to prior research, Enceladus had to cool down before the Tiger Stripes could form. The exciting molecular cocktail we can sample from this spray could provide the avenue to discover whether life exists beneath the moon’s icy surface. ![]() You can just scoop up the stuff that’s being sprayed out.” “The best part is, you don’t even have to figure out how to land and drill through the ice to get access to the ocean. “So, this moon is sort of spraying its guts out into space,” explained Hemingway. Larger particles fall back down to the moon’s surface as snow. The smallest particles of this spray escape the gravity of Enceladus and compose the majority of an entire ring of Saturn. These fissures in the ice connect the moon’s watery interior with its surface, creating pathways through which a mixture of water and complex organic molecules are sprayed into space. These lines - dubbed the “Tiger Stripes”- are each around 130 kilometers long and are curiously spaced an even 35 kilometers apart. This frozen moon sports a unique geological feature: four or five (depending on how you count) parallel fissures in the south pole. When it comes to icy ocean worlds, Enceladus is particularly impressive. “Icy ocean worlds are arguably one of the most important classes of planetary body in the Solar System,” said Hemingway while discussing his research, “There’s a lot we still don’t understand about those bodies, so I’m trying to make sense of their interiors, characterize them, and discover how they come to be.” ![]()
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