NASA's Cassini spacecraft has released date which shows that the intensity at which Saturn's Enceladus Moon ejects water ice and organic particles into space depends on the planet's gravitational pull.
Scientists earlier discovered that Saturn's Enceladus Moon ejected water ice and organic particles into space, which sprayed out of active fissures known as "tiger stripes" at the moon's South Pole. The presence of salt in the jets suggests that the water may come from a liquid ocean beneath its icy shell. However, scientists were not aware of what was driving the geological activity on this moon till date.
After analysing 252 images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, the team of researchers found that these ejections were four times brighter when Enceladus was furthest from Saturn.
This particular moon orbits the planet in a distorted, elliptical shape rather than a circular one, resulting in the moon being pulled in and squeezed by Saturn's gravity. Owing to this phenomenon, the interiors of the moon gets heated, resulting in geological activity on the icy moon.
"What this tells us is that Saturn's tides are having a significant effect on how much material can escape from beneath Enceladus," Matthew Hedman at Cornell University said in a press statement. "Previous models predicted that when Enceladus was near the point most distant from Saturn, the cracks would be pulled open or widened, and the most amount of liquid would escape. This is the first observational data we have that shows quite clearly that is the case."
Hedman also said that by observing how the moon responded to such tidal forces scientists can get a better picture of the "rigidity of the moon's interior" and what goes on beneath its surface, and where the water vapour and ice streams came from.
Previously, John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute revealed in an article that Enceladus was one of the few places beyond Earth "where we can watch geology happen in real time, giving us a primer for understanding other, less active, icy worlds".
"The likely presence of liquid water and complex organic chemistry makes Enceladus especially intriguing as a potential habitat for extraterrestrial life, providing additional motivation for investigating its interior," NBC News quoted Spencer as saying.
