Rain coming from the oak in Saturn

2011/07/28 Kortabitarte Egiguren, Irati - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Astronomia

Scientists have been searching for the origin of water in the high atmosphere of Saturn for 14 years. The Herschel telescope of the ESA has just unraveled the mystery: this water comes from the moon Encielado of Saturn.

The Encinado projects approximately 250 kg of water vapor per second from the jets of the South Pole. All this water forms a gigantic bull or ring of water vapor around Saturn. This giant ring has been detected thanks to the Herschel telescope. So far they have not been able to detect water vapor with visible light, but with the infrared radiation detected by the Herschel telescope.

The image of Goiri is a photograph taken by the car park Cassini in 2009 to Entzelado. You can see four streams of water coming out of the South Pole.

Image: Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute