Posted on 05/07/2006 11:17:31 AM PDT by KevinDavis
Step aside, Europa. Make way, Titan. Saturn's small moon Enceladus is becoming one of the hottest places to look for signs of life in the chilly outer solar system. NASA's Cassini spacecraft recently discovered that a giant plume of water vapor, dust, and small ice crystals shoots out from a crack-lined region in the southern hemisphere of this 500-kilometer-wide moon. Observations of the plume and surrounding material on the moon's surface suggest that Enceladus harbors the basic ingredients necessary for life as we know it.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
As do echiladas- 
During the first two Cassini passages of Enceladus, in February and March 2005, the craft's magnetometer detected radio-wave oscillations at the exact frequency expected when ionized water molecules gyrate along magnetic field lines... Then, on July 14, Cassini swooped in for a closer look, coming within 172 km of the moon. That's the nearest that the craft has come to a satellite of Saturn. Images revealed a terrain of faults, folds, and ridges devoid of craters, further evidence that Enceladus is one of the most geologically active places in the solar system. The images also showed fresh-looking deposits of amorphous and crystalline ice that could be just hours to decades old... A giant geyser of water vapor was erupting from the vicinity of 100-meter-wide linear cracks, dubbed tiger stripes, at the south pole. The plume soared 175 km above the moon... Spectra revealed that the geyser contained compounds tentatively identified as carbon dioxide, methane, propane, acetylene, and molecular nitrogen. Molecular nitrogen requires a relatively warm temperature, notes Matson... also revealed in the plume and on the nearby surface, a mixture of organic and inorganic compounds that might support life... Completing the picture, Cassini revealed an infrared glow—a hint of heat. Though it's still a frigid 157 kelvins, the region around the plume is 25 kelvins warmer than other areas on the moon.
"I'll take the 'green', please, and make sure the cheese is melted!"
"...A giant geyser of water vapor was erupting from the vicinity of 100-meter-wide linear cracks, dubbed tiger stripes, at the south pole..."
Enceladus - could it be expanding, might the cracks eventually widen and become an ocean or a lake, hmmm?
Enceladus 'making' water...
I traveled from Hyperion to Enceladus, and didn't pass water once.
[rimshot!]
LOL! I once travelled from Melbourne to Adelaide in a GTHO on one toilet stop and an aussie meat pie.
:'D
additional article:
The Amazing Somersaulting Satellite
By Selby Cull
Sky & Telescope
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1741_1.asp
http://skyandtelescope.com/printable/news/article_1744.asp
http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/8841.jpg
http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/8842.jpg
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