Thread  RSS Enceladus Atmosphere



# 10980 20 years ago on Thu, Mar 17 2005 at 8:04 am

This might not seem like a really big deal, but discovering atmospheres on moons within our solar system could lead to learning more about potential terraforming.

They found an atmosphere on Saturn's moon Enceladus, which is covered with ice (and possibly water underneath). On a moon with an atmosphere, equipped probes could run experiments with chemical reactions - learning more about converting atmospheres.

They've found an atmosphere on Titan, too.

# 10981 20 years ago on Thu, Mar 17 2005 at 8:22 am

Cool. It's been known for quite a while that Titan has a dense atmosphere (similar in density to Earth), but it's interesting to know that Enceladus has one, too. I'm very suprised about that, though. Enceladus is pretty small (about 500 kilometers in diameter), and like most satellites of the gas giants composed of an ice/rock mix. Hence there can't be much of a gravity to hold an atmosphere. It's really amazing.

# 10982 20 years ago on Thu, Mar 17 2005 at 8:57 am

I doubt we could terraform anything as far out as Saturn's orbit, simply because there's no where near enough sunlight to keep the environment warm - even with the most extreme greenhouse effect in play.

# 10983 20 years ago on Thu, Mar 17 2005 at 9:35 am

Point, plus it's rather unlikely that Enceladus would hold any dense atmosphere. After all, probably old Mars is the best candidate for terraforming in our solar system.

And, quite possibly we will find even better candidates orbiting nearby planets.

# 10984 20 years ago on Thu, Mar 17 2005 at 10:08 am

Nearby planets? Or nearby stars?


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