Geysers Beyond Earth

A geyser is a spring ejecting water and steam. Surface water seeps down to 2,000 metres.

Outer Solar System moons erupt in vapour jets. Low ambient pressures mean no liquid forms. Space geysers skip the plumbing.

Water vapour jets erupt near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The Cassini orbiter observed plumes from vents.

Enceladus plumes built a planetary ring.

Cassini flew through these plumes several times, allowing direct analysis of water from inside another solar system body. Cassini skipped the glass.

Neptune's moon Triton has nitrogen eruptions. Voyager 2 found active plumes up to 8 km high during its 1989 flyby.

Mars shows carbon dioxide jets from its southern polar ice cap, leaving dark spots and spider-like channels. Mars just redecorated its ice caps.

In December 2013, the Hubble Space Telescope detected water vapour plumes potentially 200 km high above Europa.