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High-temperature water–rock interactions and hydrothermal environments in the chondrite-like core of Enceladus
It has been suggested that Saturn's moon Enceladus possesses a subsurface ocean. The recent discovery of silica nanoparticles derived from Enceladus shows the presence of ongoing hydrothermal reactions in the interior. Here, we report results from detailed laboratory experiments to constrain th...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Pub. Group
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4639802/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26506464 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9604 |
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author | Sekine, Yasuhito Shibuya, Takazo Postberg, Frank Hsu, Hsiang-Wen Suzuki, Katsuhiko Masaki, Yuka Kuwatani, Tatsu Mori, Megumi Hong, Peng K. Yoshizaki, Motoko Tachibana, Shogo Sirono, Sin-iti |
author_facet | Sekine, Yasuhito Shibuya, Takazo Postberg, Frank Hsu, Hsiang-Wen Suzuki, Katsuhiko Masaki, Yuka Kuwatani, Tatsu Mori, Megumi Hong, Peng K. Yoshizaki, Motoko Tachibana, Shogo Sirono, Sin-iti |
author_sort | Sekine, Yasuhito |
collection | PubMed |
description | It has been suggested that Saturn's moon Enceladus possesses a subsurface ocean. The recent discovery of silica nanoparticles derived from Enceladus shows the presence of ongoing hydrothermal reactions in the interior. Here, we report results from detailed laboratory experiments to constrain the reaction conditions. To sustain the formation of silica nanoparticles, the composition of Enceladus' core needs to be similar to that of carbonaceous chondrites. We show that the presence of hydrothermal reactions would be consistent with NH(3)- and CO(2)-rich plume compositions. We suggest that high reaction temperatures (>50 °C) are required to form silica nanoparticles whether Enceladus' ocean is chemically open or closed to the icy crust. Such high temperatures imply either that Enceladus formed shortly after the formation of the solar system or that the current activity was triggered by a recent heating event. Under the required conditions, hydrogen production would proceed efficiently, which could provide chemical energy for chemoautotrophic life. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4639802 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Nature Pub. Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-46398022015-12-08 High-temperature water–rock interactions and hydrothermal environments in the chondrite-like core of Enceladus Sekine, Yasuhito Shibuya, Takazo Postberg, Frank Hsu, Hsiang-Wen Suzuki, Katsuhiko Masaki, Yuka Kuwatani, Tatsu Mori, Megumi Hong, Peng K. Yoshizaki, Motoko Tachibana, Shogo Sirono, Sin-iti Nat Commun Article It has been suggested that Saturn's moon Enceladus possesses a subsurface ocean. The recent discovery of silica nanoparticles derived from Enceladus shows the presence of ongoing hydrothermal reactions in the interior. Here, we report results from detailed laboratory experiments to constrain the reaction conditions. To sustain the formation of silica nanoparticles, the composition of Enceladus' core needs to be similar to that of carbonaceous chondrites. We show that the presence of hydrothermal reactions would be consistent with NH(3)- and CO(2)-rich plume compositions. We suggest that high reaction temperatures (>50 °C) are required to form silica nanoparticles whether Enceladus' ocean is chemically open or closed to the icy crust. Such high temperatures imply either that Enceladus formed shortly after the formation of the solar system or that the current activity was triggered by a recent heating event. Under the required conditions, hydrogen production would proceed efficiently, which could provide chemical energy for chemoautotrophic life. Nature Pub. Group 2015-10-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4639802/ /pubmed/26506464 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9604 Text en Copyright © 2015, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Sekine, Yasuhito Shibuya, Takazo Postberg, Frank Hsu, Hsiang-Wen Suzuki, Katsuhiko Masaki, Yuka Kuwatani, Tatsu Mori, Megumi Hong, Peng K. Yoshizaki, Motoko Tachibana, Shogo Sirono, Sin-iti High-temperature water–rock interactions and hydrothermal environments in the chondrite-like core of Enceladus |
title | High-temperature water–rock interactions and hydrothermal environments in the chondrite-like core of Enceladus |
title_full | High-temperature water–rock interactions and hydrothermal environments in the chondrite-like core of Enceladus |
title_fullStr | High-temperature water–rock interactions and hydrothermal environments in the chondrite-like core of Enceladus |
title_full_unstemmed | High-temperature water–rock interactions and hydrothermal environments in the chondrite-like core of Enceladus |
title_short | High-temperature water–rock interactions and hydrothermal environments in the chondrite-like core of Enceladus |
title_sort | high-temperature water–rock interactions and hydrothermal environments in the chondrite-like core of enceladus |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4639802/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26506464 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9604 |
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