Title

The Auroral Footprint Of Enceladus On Saturn

Abstract

Although there are substantial differences between the magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, it has been suggested that cryovolcanic activity at Enceladus could lead to electrodynamic coupling between Enceladus and Saturn like that which links Jupiter with Io, Europa and Ganymede. Powerful field-aligned electron beams associated with the Io-Jupiter coupling, for example, create an auroral footprint in Jupiter's ionosphere. Auroral ultraviolet emission associated with Enceladus-Saturn coupling is anticipated to be just a few tenths of a kilorayleigh (ref. 12), about an order of magnitude dimmer than Io's footprint and below the observable threshold, consistent with its non-detection. Here we report the detection of magnetic-field-aligned ion and electron beams (offset several moon radii downstream from Enceladus) with sufficient power to stimulate detectable aurora, and the subsequent discovery of Enceladus-associated aurora in a few per cent of the scans of the moon's footprint. The footprint varies in emission magnitude more than can plausibly be explained by changes in magnetospheric parameters-and as such is probably indicative of variable plume activity. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

Publication Date

4-21-2011

Publication Title

Nature

Volume

472

Issue

7343

Number of Pages

331-333

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09928

Socpus ID

79955457564 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/79955457564

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS