{
  "id": 11959678,
  "title": "How Enceladus' ocean spray becomes chemically diverse ice grains",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/04/how-enceladus-ocean-spray-becomes-chemically-diverse-ice-grains",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-04T16:00:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-09-enceladus-ocean-spray-chemically-diverse.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The ocean beneath Saturn's moon Enceladus is revealed to be chemically diverse, with ice grains ejected from its subsurface ocean exhibiting strikingly different compositions. An international research team, including scientists from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Institute of Science Tokyo, found that these ice grains, observed by the Cassini spacecraft's Cosmic Dust Analyzer, are enriched in various salts such as sodium chloride, carbonates, phosphates, and potassium chloride. The team discovered that the diversity in ice grain composition arises from the varying cooling rates during the freezing process of ocean droplets. When droplets around 200 micrometers across freeze slowly, at approximately 10 K per minute or less, salts become spatially separated, resulting in different chemical compositions in the resulting ice grains. This finding challenges previous assumptions about the rapid freezing of seawater spray near Enceladus and suggests that droplets may travel more slowly through the subsurface vent system before reaching the surface.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}