Cassini sniffs Enceladus's 'surprising organic brew'

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sampled a "surprising organic brew" erupting from Saturnian moon Enceladus's south polar region comprising "volatile gases, water vapour, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as organic materials". Cassini performed an "in your face" flypast of the Moon on 12 March, skimming at over 51, …

[brian]

Oh good grief....

"Enceladus' brew is like carbonated water with an essence of natural gas"

Expect the price of Perrier et al. to drop as the Islington set and other chinless wonders start looking to where they can buy "Enceladus Spring Water"

Come to think it, there's a business opportunity here......

[Anonymous Coward]

@brian

But the costs would be astronomical .....

Plastic see through mac please ....

[Beelzeebub]

Nothing more to see here, move on

I thought I could keep it hidden from prying eyes, blast!

[Anonymous Coward]

Eruptions in the 'south polar region'

[NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sampled a "surprising organic brew" erupting from Saturnian moon Enceladus's south polar region comprising "volatile gases, water vapour, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as organic materials".]

Then it's probably a lot like my house about an hour after I've had a helping of my 'special' chilli con carne.

Though I suspect mine would probably melt Cassini's solar panels off...

[Eric Werme]

.... business opportunity

"essence of natural gas" - sounds like a new paradigm for "power drinks" to me.

Start Your Day with a Bang!

[Tony]

incompetence

I just can't get over the fact that whoever did the temperature calculations didn't realize that they don't need to 'add 32' when dealing with temperature differences.

A difference of 17 degrees C is 30.6 F, not 63. A difference of 93 C is 167.4 not 200.

[xyz]

Looks like...

....something off the front of a Led Zeppilin album.

Suppose the next set they find will look like 666

[Steve]

@Tony

Shouldn't surprise you. NASA's record on using these new-fangled metric units with spacecraft isn't exactly stellar...

It is an agency from the country where far too many supposedly educated engineers think that GMT always means "the time in London", and hence miss

many meetings during the summer...

[Alistair]

So thats a positive for potential life

Certainly there exists a real possibility for liquid water and therefore possibly carbon-based life-forms, captain. Looks like a better bet than that other icy moon, Europa.

Just hope we don't pollute it with our own micro-organisms. Remember 2010? "Attempt no landing there"

[Morely Dotes]

@ Steve

Don't confuse a perfectly good excuse that Management will not question with an Engineer's ability to learn the local time.

Incidentally, last I heard London wasn't on metric time any more than Seattle is.

I am 188cm tall and weigh in at 109 kg. That's a bit over 2 yards (an English measurement) and... How many stone is that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sheesh

Everyone wants to nitpick. "Supposedly education engineers", sheesh. Let's see you put a probe around Saturn and discover moon geysers.

[Chris Barrett]

@Morely

You are 6.17 feet tall and........wow, over 17 stone in weight? Are you an accidental American?? ;)

(the coat because it won't fit you)

[Phil Hill]

Alternative Viewpoint?

If astronomers were taught about electric theory then they may be more open to an alternative viewpoint!

http://www.thunderbolts.info/thunderblogs/thornhill.htm

Prefer leopard skin to tiger stripe methinks......