Salt segregation process on Enceladus (IMAGE)
Caption
The study examined mass spectra of ice grains from Enceladus's plume and found that the grains exhibit much greater compositional diversity than previously recognized, suggesting that plume formation is more complex than previously thought. This illustration shows the mechanism the authors propose: the plume forms through the slow freezing and fragmentation of oceanic spray originating from within the moon.
Credit
FUB/Marie Dannenmann.
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Original content