James Webb Telescope Discovers Massive Water Plume on Saturn's Moon Enceladus, Hinting at Possibility of Life
The James Webb Space Telescope has detected a vast plume of water vapor spewing from the southern pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, a jet extending nearly 10,000 kilometers and feeding a previously detected torus circling the entire planet. Water vapor from a presumed sub-surface ocean below the icy crust of Enceladus has been seen before in striking images collected by the Cassini Saturn orbiter, but never at the scale revealed by Webb. Enceladus is believed to harbor a global ocean of salty water sandwiched between a rocky core and an iced-over outer crust, making it a prime target for future searches for life beyond Earth.