A plume of water vapour escapes from fissures crossing the south polar region of the Saturnian moon Enceladus. Tidal deformation of a thin surface crust above an internal ocean could result in tensile and compressive stresses that would affect the width of the fissures; therefore, the quantity of water vapour released at different locations in Enceladus' eccentric orbit is a crucial measurement of tidal control of venting. Here we report observations of an occultation of a star by the plume on 24 October 2007 that revealed four high-density gas jets superimposed on the background plume. The gas jet positions coincide with those of dust jets reported elsewhere inside the plume. The maximum water column density in the plume is about twice the density reported earlier. The density ratio does not agree with predictions-we should have seen less water than was observed in 2005. The ratio of the jets' bulk vertical velocities to their thermal velocities is 1.5 +/- 0.2, which supports the hypothesis that the source of the plume is liquid water, with gas accelerated to supersonic velocity in nozzle-like channels.

Europa is known to possess a predominantly molecular oxygen atmosphere produced by sputtering of its icy surface. This atmosphere, which is diagnostic of surface composition and processes, has been characterized by Hubble Space Telescope, Galileo, Cassini and groundbased observations. The primary means of detecting Europa's atmosphere is via emission from the atomic constituents. The relative strengths of the atomic oxygen emission lines allow inference of a dominant O 2 component. Oxygen, sodium and potassium are known minor constituents. A relatively dense ionosphere has also been detected on several occasions by Galileo radio occultation measurements, the presence of which appears to require a sunlit trailing hemisphere. Neither the spatial distribution of the oxygen emission associated with the atmosphere, nor the obvious variability of the atmospheric emissions and the ionospheric densities, has been adequately explained to date.

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Aims. Heliospheric neutral hydrogen scatters solar Lyman-α radiation from the Sun with "27-day" intensity modulations observed near Earth due to the Sun's rotation combined with Earth's orbital motion. These modulations are increasingly damped in amplitude at larger distances from the Sun due to multiple scattering in the heliosphere, providing a diagnostic of the interplanetary neutral hydrogen density independent of instrument calibration. Methods. This paper presents Cassini data from 2003−2004 obtained downwind near Saturn at ∼10 AU that at times show undamped "27-day" waves in good agreement with the single-scattering models of Pryor et al. (1992, ApJ, 394, 363). Simultaneous Voyager 1 data from 2003−2004 obtained upwind at a distance of 88.8−92.6 AU from the Sun show waves damped by a factor of ∼0.21. The observed degree of damping is interpreted in terms of Monte Carlo multiple-scattering calculations (e.g., Keller et al. 1981, A&A, 102, 415) applied to two heliospheric hydrogen two-shock density distributions (discussed in Gangopadhyay et al. 2006, ApJ, 637, 786) calculated in the frame of the Baranov-Malama model of the solar wind interaction with the two-component (neutral hydrogen and plasma) interstellar wind (Baranov & Malama 1993, J. Geophys. Res., 98, 15157; Izmodenov et al. 2001, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 10681; Baranov & Izmodenov 2006, Fluid Dyn., 41, 689). Results. We conclude that multiple scattering is definitely occurring in the outer heliosphere. Both models compare favorably to the data, using heliospheric neutral H densities at the termination shock of 0.085 cm −3 and 0.095 cm −3 . This work generally agrees with earlier discussions of Voyager data in Quemerais et al. (1996, ApJ, 463, 349) showing the importance of multiple scattering but is based on Voyager data obtained at larger distances from the Sun (with larger damping) simultaneously with Cassini data obtained closer to the Sun.