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Published January 15, 2016 | Accepted Version + Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Aggregate particles in the plumes of Enceladus

Abstract

Estimates of the total particulate mass of the plumes of Enceladus are important to constrain theories of particle formation and transport at the surface and interior of the satellite. We revisit the calculations of Ingersoll and Ewald (Ingersoll, A.P., Ewald, S.P. [2011]. Icarus 216(2), 492–506), who estimated the particulate mass of the Enceladus plumes from strongly forward scattered light in Cassini ISS images. We model the plume as a combination of spherical particles and irregular aggregates resulting from the coagulation of spherical monomers, the latter of which allows for plumes of lower particulate mass. Though a continuum of solutions are permitted by the model, the best fits to the ISS data consist either of low mass plumes composed entirely of small aggregates or high mass plumes composed of mostly spheres. The high particulate mass plumes have total particulate masses of (166 ± 42) × 10^3 kg, consistent with the results of Ingersoll and Ewald (Ingersoll, A.P., Ewald, S.P. [2011]. Icarus 216(2), 492–506). The low particulate mass plumes have masses of (25 ± 4) × 10^3 kg, leading to a solid to vapor mass ratio of 0.07 ± 0.01 for the plume. If indeed the plumes are made of such aggregates, then a vapor-based origin for the plume particles cannot be ruled out. Finally, we show that the residence time of the monomers inside the plume vents is sufficiently long for Brownian coagulation to form the aggregates before they are ejected to space.

Additional Information

© 2015 Elsevier. Received 2 June 2015; Revised 4 September 2015; Accepted 23 September 2015; Available online 9 October 2015. We thank Y.L. Yung and H. Ngo for their valuable input. P. Gao and P. Kopparla were supported in part by an NAI Virtual Planetary Laboratory grant from the University of Washington to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology under solicitation NNH12ZDA002C and Cooperative Agreement Number NNA13AA93A. X. Zhang was supported by the Bisgrove Scholar Program at the University of Arizona. A.P. Ingersoll was supported by the Cassini Project and NASA's Cassini Data Analysis Program.

Attached Files

Accepted Version - 1506.00713.pdf

Supplemental Material - mmc1.txt

Supplemental Material - mmc2.txt

Supplemental Material - mmc3.txt

Supplemental Material - mmc4.txt

Supplemental Material - mmc5.txt

Supplemental Material - mmc6.txt

Supplemental Material - mmc7.txt

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August 22, 2023
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