Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The brightness and purity of the water ice in Saturn's rings have also been cited as evidence that the rings are much younger than Saturn, [57] as the infall of meteoric dust would have led to a darkening of the rings. However, new research indicates that the B Ring may be massive enough to have diluted infalling material and thus avoided ...
Water ice clouds begin at a level where the pressure is about 2.5 bar and extend down to 9.5 bar, where temperatures range from 185 to 270 K. Intermixed in this layer is a band of ammonium hydrosulfide ice, lying in the pressure range 3–6 bar with temperatures of 190–235 K. Finally, the lower layers, where pressures are between 10 and 20 ...
The high albedo indicates that the surface of Tethys is composed of almost pure water ice with only a small amount of darker materials. The visible spectrum of Tethys is flat and featureless, whereas in the near-infrared strong water ice absorption bands at 1.25, 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0 μm wavelengths are visible. [27]
Mimas, the innermost of the round moons of Saturn and directly interior to Enceladus, is a geologically dead body, even though it should experience stronger tidal forces than Enceladus. This apparent paradox can be explained in part by temperature-dependent properties of water ice (the main constituent of the interiors of Mimas and Enceladus).
The density of Tethys (0.985 g/cm 3) is less than that of water, indicating that it is made mainly of water ice with only a small fraction of rock. [ 43 ] Dione is the second-largest inner moon of Saturn.
The geology of Titan encompasses the geological characteristics of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Titan's density of 1.881 g/cm 3 indicates that it is roughly 40–60% rock by mass, with the rest being water ice and other materials.
The water ice is delivered by powerful convections originating from about 200 km deep in Saturn's atmosphere. [14] The 2010 GWS also had an increased level of lightning. It had 10 Saturn Electrostatic Discharges (SED) per second, while synoptic-scale storms on Saturn had a few SEDs per seconds. [5]
At this temperature water ice has an extremely low vapor pressure, so the atmosphere is nearly free of water vapor. However the methane in the atmosphere causes a substantial greenhouse effect which keeps the surface of Titan at a much higher temperature than what would otherwise be the thermal equilibrium. [3] [4] [5]