Scientists Discover Phosphorus on Enceladus | Hacker News Reader

Scientists Discover Phosphorus on Enceladus

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142 pointspseudolus23 comments

This is a good primer on the importance of Phosphorus [1].

Enceladus is surprisingly small (150 miles in diameter). It's too small for a rocky core. Instead it has a mushy or spongy core. But something inside is still generating heat. Some of this is from gravitational tides. It's not clear to me if that explains all of it however.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPU9jeQbTOU

My understanding is that the heat is caused by the flexing of Enceladus orbiting Saturn, it's pull is so strong that slight differences in distance causes massive heat. Super cool!

Frasier Cain is a great journalist for everything space related, if you want to see more.

> Super cool!

Quite the opposite, in fact!

That is what “gravitational tides” means

I didn't notice that you had posted the video first. I've deleted my comment.

You might be thinking of radius. The diameter is ~500km.

This discovery is from analyzing data that was captured during the Cassini missions in 2004. Imagine how much data we’re getting from JWST right now and what almost two decades of analysis will similarly yield from that. Absolutely stunning.

For anyone wondering, some reasearchers are trying to get another mission to Enceladus to be sent soon, called the Orbilander (orbiter/lander combo).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus_Orbilander

More detailed article in Nature:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05987-9

Other reporting in paywalled publications:

A ‘Soda Ocean’ on a Moon of Saturn Has All the Ingredients for Life - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/science/enceladus-phospho...)

This alien ocean is the first known to have all elements crucial for life - https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/06/14/saturn-moo...

Phosphine on Venus as well. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/possible-...

A follow-up study refuted that. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-phosphine-venus-isnt.html

edit: A follow up to this follow up found that it had calibration errors and reported 3ppb on Venus. The original study however had 20ppb. https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.09852

This has been discussed a lot at the time, but it turned out to be an error.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus#Phosphine

Soon this one will be too

Uh, no, I wouldn't bet on that.

You can guess that they're overselling phosphorous as a landmark

Finding organic carbon everywhere used to seem very exciting - turns out that's just the fate of low-number metals in the universe. Who'da thunk such a thing.

> Phosphorus [...] metal

What...? Oh, right. Cosmology. https://xkcd.com/2340/

The water eruption at the South Pole, is that a permanent feature or seasonal?

Permanent. As Enceladus orbits Saturn, variances in the strength of the the gravity field causes Enceladus to contract and expand, building up heat and pressure. Since Enceladus is completely ocean covered by a thin layer of ice, the water blasts out of fissures in the surface. Some now think that some of Saturns rings have been generated over time by Enceladus ejecting water and other matter as it orbits.

So, it's basically the orbital equivalent of a rubber duck

I love the typeface. So 80s computer font.

what is the typeface? for the capital title and low case text

> view source

I'm still looking for intelligent life on this planet

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