Direct detection of the Enceladus water torus with Herschel

• Published in: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Main Authors: Hartogh, P., Lellouch, E., Moreno, R., Bockelée-Morvan, D., Biver, N., Cassidy, T., Rengel, M., Jarchow, C., Cavalié, T., Crovisier, J., Helmich, F. P., Kidger, M.
• Other Authors: Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung = Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux Pessac (LAB), Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers (OASU), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB), Laboratoire d'astrodynamique, d'astrophysique et d'aéronomie de bordeaux (L3AB)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: CCSD 2011
• Subjects: planets and satellites: individual: Saturn; planets and satellites: individual: Enceladus; techniques: spectroscopic; submillimetre: planetary system; [SDU.ASTR.EP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]; [PHYS.ASTR.EP]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]; Canada; Saturn; South Pole; Titan; South pole
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00620190; https://hal.science/hal-00620190v1/document; https://hal.science/hal-00620190v1/file/aa17377-11.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201117377

International audience Cryovolcanic activity near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus produces plumes of H2O-dominated gases and ice particles, which escape and populate a torus-shaped cloud. Using submillimeter spectroscopy with Herschel, we report the direct detection of the Enceladus water vapor torus in four rotational lines of water at 557, 987, 1113, and 1670 GHz, and probe its physical conditions and structure. We determine line-of-sight H2O column densities of ~4 × 1013 cm-2 near the equatorial plane, with a ~50 000 km vertical scale height. The water torus appears to be rotationally cold (e.g. an excitation temperature of 16 K is measured for the 1113 GHz line) but dynamically excited, with non-Keplerian dispersion velocities of ~2 km s-1, and appears to be largely shaped by molecular collisions. From estimates of the influx rates of torus material into Saturn and Titan, we infer that Enceladus' activity is likely to be the ultimate source of water in the upper atmosphere of Saturn, but not in Titan's. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA. HIFI has been designed and built by a consortium of institutes and university departments from across Europe, Canada and the United States under the leadership of SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Groningen, The Netherlands and with major contributions from Germany, France and the US.Figures 4 and 5 are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org