Planetary Science Seminar

  The plumes of Enceladus are the keys to liquid water,   habitability, and orbital evolution, but the data are incomplete and the   interpretation is uncertain. I will first review the principal results   from the past 11 years of Cassini observation - the mass rate and   composition of the vapor, the mass rate and composition of the solid   particles, the temperatures close to the vents, the total power, and the   partitioning between radiated power and power escaping as latent heat of   the vapor. I will then discuss papers that I have been involved with   during the past year, with co-authors Shawn Ewald, Miki Nakajima, Peter   Gao, Pushkar Kopparla, and Xi Zhang. Our results are relevant to the   width and depth of the cracks, their periodic opening and closing, and   why they don't seal themselves off with frost deposits near the upper   surface. I will close with a list of projects and an appeal for help.