Scientists at the Southwestern Research Institute reported seeing a giant plume of water vapor about 10,000 kilometers long that erupted from the surface of Enceladus, Saturn's moon. The observations were made with the James Webb Space Telescope. This is reported in an article published in the journal Nature Astronomy. The discovery is briefly described in a press release on the Phys.org website.

Enceladus is known to have a subsurface ocean of liquid water, evidence of which was originally obtained by the Cassini probe, which analyzed samples of ice grains and water vapor escaping into space from cracks in the moon's icy surface. The new data was obtained by the near-infrared spectrograph aboard the Webb Telescope.

During one revolution of Enceladus around Saturn, which takes 33 hours, the satellite spews water, which is distributed along the dense E-ring of the gas giant, forming a torus. The discovered plume extends over 20 diameters of Enceladus itself. Approximately 30 percent of the ejected water remains in the "wake" of the satellite, and 70 percent escapes into the space of the planet's system.

The scientists plan to analyze the water in the plume for markers of the existence of life, such as organic matter and hydrogen peroxide. The Webb Telescope is able to provide researchers with data with a high signal-to-noise ratio, which is 10 times greater than during the first cycle of operation, which gives scientists the best opportunity to search for traces of life in the satellite's subglacial ocean.