water on saturn's moon

I know this is probably a very dumb question for all you leaned people,
but how do they know it is water coming from those geysers, and not
something else like liquid nitrogen or something else? do they use some
kind of spectrometer instrument from the probe to figure it out? how do
they KNOW it is water? mike

As long as there's whiskey, that's all I care.

In article ,
writes:
I know this is probably a very dumb question for all you leaned people,
but how do they know it is water coming from those geysers, and not
something else like liquid nitrogen or something else?

Nope, it's a fine question. I wish the press releases had explained
better. As far as I can tell, all the articles are in the March 10
issue of _Science_. From just a quick glance, I gather Cassini had
both UV spectroscopy and mass spectrometry to identify the water.

If there's a real expert around, how about commenting further?

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Steve Willner Phone 617-495-7123
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