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Enceladus Plume (Webb [NIRSpec] and Cassini Image)

Two-part graphic shows a clearer image of a bright white circular moon at top left in a box. It is labeled Enceladus (Cassini). The majority of the graphic shows Webb’s image, which appears pixelated. At the bottom is the label, plume (Webb). The box at top left with the Cassini image has a line drawn to a red box surrounding a single, whiter pixel in the Webb image. The entire moon is represented by that outlined pixel. The Webb image is square, but appears rotated at an angle. Below the pixel representing Enceladus is a roughly triangular-shaped area of brighter blue pixels, which is narrower near the moon and gets wider as it extends to the bottom of the Webb image. This shows a water vapor plume extending from the moon’s southern pole.

An image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) shows a water vapor plume jetting from the southern pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, extending out more than 20 times the size of the moon itself. The inset, an image from the Cassini orbiter, emphasizes how small Enceladus appears in the Webb image compared to the water plume.

Webb is allowing researchers, for the first time, to directly see how this plume feeds the water supply for the entire system of Saturn and its rings. By analyzing the Webb data, astronomers have determined roughly 30 percent of the water stays within this torus, a fuzzy donut of water that is co-located with Saturn’s “E-ring,” and the other 70 percent escapes to supply the rest of the Saturnian system with water.

Enceladus, an ocean world about four percent the size of Earth, just 313 miles across, is one of the most exciting scientific targets in our solar system in the search for life beyond Earth. A global reservoir of salty water sits below the moon’s icy outer crust, and geyser-like volcanoes spew jets of ice particles, water vapor, and organic chemicals out of crevices in the moon’s surface informally called ‘tiger stripes.’

NIRSpec was built for the European Space Agency (ESA) by a consortium of European companies led by Airbus Defence and Space (ADS) with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre providing its detector and micro-shutter subsystems.

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created with Webb data from proposal: 1250 (G. Villanueva).

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    NIRSpec IFU
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    09 Nov 2022
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Enceladus
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Water vapor plume from Saturn’s moon Enceladus
  • Release Date
    May 30, 2023
  • Science Release
    Webb Maps Surprisingly Large Plume Jetting From Saturn’s Moon Enceladus
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Gerónimo Villanueva (NASA-GSFC); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Downloads

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Two-part graphic shows a clearer image of a bright white circular moon at top left in a box. It is labeled Enceladus (Cassini). The majority of the graphic shows Webb’s image, which appears pixelated. At the bottom is the label, plume (Webb). The box at top left with the Cassini image has a line drawn to a red box surrounding a single, whiter pixel in the Webb image. The entire moon is represented by that outlined pixel. The Webb image is square, but appears rotated at an angle. Below the pixel representing Enceladus is a roughly triangular-shaped area of brighter blue pixels, which is narrower near the moon and gets wider as it extends to the bottom of the Webb image. This shows a water vapor plume extending from the moon’s southern pole.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

This image is an H20 map created from the NIRSpec IFU data aquired by the James Webb Space Telescope. The color results from assigning blue to a monochromatic (grayscale) image.

Related Images & Videos

Infographic titled “Saturn’s Moon Enceladus; Water Emission Spectrum.” The infographic shows a diagram of Saturn, Enceladus, and its torus at the top, the NIRSpec image of Enceladus at the bottom left, and the spectra of the NIRSpec field of view at the bottom right. In the top diagram, Saturn is at the center, and the torus circles the planet like a donut. The square box around Enceladus within the torus in the top graphic has lines drawn to it from a box at the bottom left. In this box is the Webb NIRSpec image of Enceladus, with the torus, moon, plume and central areas labeled. These labels correspond to the 3 different horizontal lines on the plot. There are blue vertical columns scattered across the plot indicating where spikes in the line emissions represent the presence of water.

Enceladus Water Emission Spectrum (NIRSpec IFU)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s exquisite sensitivity and highly specialized instruments are revealing details into how one of Saturn’s moon’s feeds a water supply to the entire system of the ringed planet. Enceladus, a prime candidate in the search for life elsewhere in our...

An illustration of the planet Saturn and a depiction of several of the moons that orbit it. The moons are dots labeled Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys and Rhea. The dots have lines trailing from each representing their direction of travel or orbit. Co-located with the dot and line labeled Enceladus is a blue torus circles the planet like a donut.

Enceladus Torus and Plume

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space telescope recently discovered a plume jetting out from the moon’s south pole more than 20 times the size of the moon itself. This animation illustrates how the moon’s water plumes feed the planet’s torus. By analyzing the Webb data,...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, Gerónimo Villanueva (NASA-GSFC)

Image Processing Credit

Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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