Overview
- Scientists reanalyzed Cassini’s infrared data from Enceladus’s north polar winter in 2005 and summer in 2015, published in Science Advances.
- The north pole appears about 7 K warmer than passive models predict, indicating a local conductive flux of roughly 46 ± 4 milliwatts per square meter.
- Combining the newly inferred north‑polar loss with the south pole’s ~19 gigawatts yields about 54 gigawatts globally, matching tidal heating estimates of ~50–55 gigawatts.
- The result overturns the notion that the north was geologically quiet and refines ice‑shell thickness to about 20–23 km in parts of the north and 25–28 km elsewhere.
- Researchers say the apparent energy balance bolsters Enceladus’s habitability prospects and underscores the need for future in situ missions to probe its ocean.