Enceladus, the tiny, frigid satellite of Saturn: Life? No Life? No Conclusion?

Susan Kieffer
Charles R. Walgreen Professor

Geology Department

 

Enceladus, the tiny and frigid satellite of Saturn, has spectacular plumes and high heat flow emanating from a South Polar Terrain of ~70,000 km2, as documented by the spectacular Cassini mission in 2006. Since that time, there has been a controversy about the implications of these observations for interior conditions on Enceladus: Are there shallow pockets of water? Shallow seas? Deep oceans? Or, is it an ice ball? These different models lead to radically different conclusions with direct implications about whether or not conditions are suitable to make Enceladus a target for astrobiological exploration. One model, referred to as the “Cold Faithful model”, leads to the conclusion that there is liquid water in the interior. The other end member model, the so-called “Frigid Faithful model”, leads to the conclusion that the interior is a frozen mass of icy clathrates. In this talk, I’ll review the current status of the two models regarding the three essential conditions for life as we know it: Is there liquid water? Is there access to the essential ingredients for life? Is there a source of useable energy?