Fresh Tiger Stripes on Saturn's Enceladus
Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA, Posted on: Monday, 29 June 2009, 05:38 CDT Download full size image
Do underground oceans vent through the tiger stripes on Saturn's moon Enceladus? Long features dubbed tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon's South Pole and creating Saturn's mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn. Pictured above, a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. The unusual surface features dubbed tiger stripes are visible in false-color blue. Why Enceladus is active remains a mystery, as the neighboring moon Mimas, approximately the same size, appears quite dead. Most recently, an analysis of dust captured by Cassini found evidence for sodium as expected in a deep salty ocean. Conversely however, recent Earth-based observations of ice ejected by Enceladus into Saturn's E-Ring showed no evidence of the expected sodium. Such research is particularly interesting since such an ocean would be a candidate to contain life.
More Images

Impact Crater Filled with Layered Deposits .This image shows an impact crater in Utopia Planitia, in the northern hemisphere of Mars, that is fi...

The Hidden Fires of the Flame Nebula.This image, the first to be released publicly from VISTA, the world’s largest survey telescope, sh...
Recent Images
- The Hidden Fires of the Flame Nebula
- Impact Crater Filled with Layered Deposits
- Lake Ilopango, El Salvador
- The Sun Sets on Rembrandt
- Light Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris
- Erg Labes, Algeria
- Galaxy Collision Switches on Black Hole
- Martian Barchans
- Winter Storm Crosses United States
Latest Thoughts
-
Dec 14, 2009, 12:04 pm
Octopus Uses Coconut As Tool
-
Dec 14, 2009, 11:11 am
Mars Express Photographs Phobos and Deimos
-
Dec 14, 2009, 10:12 am
WISE Launch Successful
-
Dec 14, 2009, 9:19 am
Stuff Left in Containers is Wasting Your Money
-
Dec 14, 2009, 9:01 am
Avoiding Itchy, Dry Skin in the Winter
-
Dec 14, 2009, 8:56 am
Holiday Myths May Not Be As True As People Believe
- More Videos













RSS Feeds