Cryovolcano

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Cryovolcanic activity on Enceladus .
The rising fountains of ice crystals apparently supply the E-ring of Saturn with new material. The fountains are associated with the "tiger stripes" of the South Pole region.
Dark deposits of ejecta from a cryovolcano on the surface of Triton (center)

A cryovolcano ( ice volcano ) is an extraterrestrial form of volcanism that only forms at very low temperatures.

The existence of cryovolcanoes has been proven on several ice moons (the Saturn moon Enceladus , the Neptune moon Triton and the Pluto moon Charon ) as well as the dwarf planet (1) Ceres . They are also believed to be on Jupiter's moon Europa , Saturn's moon Titan and Pluto .

definition

Cryovolcanoes do not spew glowing lava , but rather easily meltable substances such as methane , carbon dioxide , water or ammonia , which occur in a frozen state inside the planet or moon . Due to the heat present there, the z. B. caused by tidal forces , these substances are melted and push to the surface. There the sputum solidifies and can build up to several hundred meters high deposits.

discovery

For a long time, the cryovolcano was a theoretically predicted object, but it was never observed. At the beginning of 2005, however, when it landed on Titan , the ESA probe Huygens confirmed the assumption that the atmosphere of Saturn's moon consists of 2 to 6 percent methane. Since atmospheric methane is quickly broken down by photochemical processes, the gas has to be simulated. Images of Huygens' mother ship, NASA's Cassini probe, from spring 2005 show structures about 30 km in diameter on the titanium surface, which are very likely cryovolcanoes. Cryovolcanoes could also be found on Enceladus and with a telescope on Charon .

By analyzing the spewed-out substances, substances from the interior of the moons could be examined for the first time. In this way, it is hoped to be able to identify possible metabolic products of extraterrestrial life in the future.

literature

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ n-tv 2016: Ice volcano-discovered-on-dwarf-planet-Ceres. n-tv know, September 1, 2016.
  2. ^ Charon: An Ice Machine in the Ultimate Deep Freeze. Announcement from the Gemini Observatory on the discovery of cryovolcanoes on Pluto's moon Charon, July 17, 2007 (English).