Searching for Activity on Saturn's Mid-size Moons

“We are looking for direct evidence through imaging at very large phase angles, when things are kind of dark, so we can see things around the moon,” said Buratti. But so far, she added, nothing has been observed. A crescent moon, backlit by the sun, provides one of the best angles for Cassini’s imaging instruments to see any material rising above the surface. Solar backlighting illuminates plume or atmospheric particles in the same way dust on a windshield becomes apparent in the glare of sunlight, said Buratti. It’s a view that can only be seen from a spacecraft in the Saturnian system.

Scientists hoping to find activity on one of these moons are heartened in their search by the 25-year wait to capture images and other measurements of the plume on Enceladus. The moon had been long-suspected of being an active body since 1980 when NASA’s Voyager spacecraft returned the first Enceladus close-ups that showed signs of tectonic movement. Even before that, Enceladus, viewed through telescopes and the Voyager spacecraft, was as bright as new-fallen snow. “Brightness was the first hint something might be going on with it,” said Buratti. The fresh look made Buratti and colleagues wonder in 1988 whether ice particles from an unknown source might be “snowing” onto the surface.

Early in Cassini’s mission, Cassini's magnetic field instrument saw signs that Enceladus was deflecting the magnetic field of Saturn differently than could be explained by the presence of Enceladus alone. On the basis of those findings, mission plans were changed to allow closer visits to this moon. On the first of these closer flybys in 2005, Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer found significantly elevated temperatures on Enceladus's surface along the "tiger stripes" that had been seen in images earlier around the south pole. Armed with this evidence, Cassini's cameras took advantage of a more distant flyby with a back-lit Enceladus and long exposures and finally saw what Buratti calls “the smoking gun” of the huge plume erupting from Enceladus’ south polar region.

Hoping to repeat their success of finding the plume at Enceladus, scientists have pored over Cassini’s past observations of other mid-size moons around Saturn in search for subtle signs of activity that might have been missed when the data were first analyzed. Cassini instruments have repeatedly looked at the moons and the space around them in visible, infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths trying to see hotspots, telltale changes or plumes that would prove surface activity occurs.

Mimas appears to be subjected to tidal forces that could lead to activity, but Cassini has few good opportunities to study that moon in the extended mission. Faint rings may have been detected around Rhea, but as for signs of surface activity, Rhea has come up short, said Buratti. “We’re pretty sure Rhea is dead.”

Dione and Tethys are more promising. Magnetic field and particle-detecting instruments on Cassini are looking for evidence of faint atmospheres around these two moons, where traces of a possible atmosphere were detected by the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer. Tethys and Dione also show evidence of recent resurfacing. Most interestingly, Cassini’s plasma spectrometer found plasma streams of electrons apparently ejected from Tethys and Dione. This is the same type of evidence that was detected from Enceladus before the plume was discovered, said Buratti, so scientists remain optimistic in their hunt for another discovery of an active world.

For more information on this subject, materials from Burrati’s Oct. 27, 2009, public teleconference on this subject can be found at /resources/17448/. She will also be delivering a talk on this subject at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco on Dec. 17, 2009.

This Cassini Science League entry is an overview of a science paper authored, or co-authored, by at least one Cassini scientist. The information above was derived from the following publications:

1) “Search for and limits on plume activity on Mimas, Tethys, and Dione with the Cassini Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer,” B.J. Buratti,(JPL) , S. Faulk (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), J. Mosher (JPL), K. Baines (JPL), R. H. Brown (University of Arizona), R. N. Clark (U.S. Geological Survey, Denver), P. D. Nicholson (Cornell); Icarus (article in press).

2) “A search for plumes on Mimas, Tethys, and Dione,” B.J. Buratti (JPL); S. Faulk (MIT, Cambridge MA); J. Mosher, K.H. Baines (JPL) R.H. Brown (University of Arizona); R.N. Clark (USGS Denver, CO); P. Nicholson (Cornell University, Ithaca NY), American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, P43F-03, Dec. 17, 2009.

3) “Disk-integrated bolometric bond albedos and rotational light curves of Saturnian satellites from Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer ,” K M. Pitman (Planetary Science Institute, Tuscon, AZ); B.J. Buratti, Joel A. Mosher (JPL), Icarus (in press) Dec. 6, 2009.

4) “Enceladus: Implications of its unusual photometric properties,” B.J. Buratti (JPL) 1988, Icarus, Volume 75, Issue 1, July 1988, Pages 113-126.

5) “Tethys and Dione as sources of outward-flowing plasma in Saturn's magnetosphere,” J. Burch, J. Goldstein, W.S. Lewis, D.T. Young (Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX), A.J. Coates (Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Dorking, Surrey, U.K.); M.K. Dougherty (Imperial College, London); N. Andre (European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands), Nature, June 14, 2007

6) “Compositional Mapping of Saturn's satellite Dione with Cassini VIMS and implications of dark material in the Saturn system,” R.N. Clark, J.M. Curchin (USGS, Denver, CO); R. Jaumann (DLR, Berlin, Germany); D.P. Cruikshank (NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA); R.H. Brown (University of Arizona); T.M. Hoefen (USGS, Denver); K. Stephan (DLR); J.M. Moore (NASA Ames Research Center); B.J. Buratti, K.H. Baines (JPL); P.D. Nicholson (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY); R.M. Nelson (JPL) 2008. Icarus, Volume 193, Issue 2, February 2008, Pages 372-386.

7) “First high phase solar phase angle observations of Rhea using Cassini VIMS: Upper limits on geologic activity,” K. Pitman, K., B. J. Buratti, J. A. Mosher, J. Bauer, T. Momary (JPL), R. H. Brown (University of Arizona), P. D. Nicholson, M.M. Hedman (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY), Astrophysical Journal Letters, June 10, 2008.

-- Mary Beth Murrill, Cassini science communication coordinator