Close Up of Enceladus' Tiger Stripes
Credit: Paul Shenk (LPI), USRA; Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA
Posted on 03/31/2008 3:20:32 PM PDT by sig226
Explanation: Could life exist beneath Enceladus? A recent flyby of Saturn's icy moon has bolstered this fascinating idea. Two years ago, images from the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn led astronomers to the undeniable conclusion that Saturn's moon Enceladus was spewing fountains of gas and ice crystals through cracks in its surface dubbed tiger stripes. Last month, Cassini dove through some of these plumes and determined that they contained water vapor laced with small amounts of methane as well as simple and complex organic molecules. Surprisingly, the plumes of Enceladus appear similar in make-up to many comets. What's more, the temperature and density of the plumes indicate they might have originated from a warmer source -- possibly a liquid source -- beneath the surface. A liquid water sea containing organic molecules is a good place to look for life. Pictured above is a vertically exaggerated close-up of some long, venting tiger stripes. The computer composite was generated from images and shadows taken during the recent Cassini flyby. Nine more flybys of Enceladus by Cassini are planned.
Looks like skin after a dose of lasix.
There is life there..microbial more than likely, but life.
All these worlds are yours except Europa Enceladus
Are you aware, since your posted image shows a somewhat dim sunlight at the portrayed distance from the sun, that if the sun were as far as Alpha Centauri it would be a sixth magnitude star and would be seen by few but those who know about these things would count the sun as a puny excuse for a star and probably not to have enough juice to support life in its puny planetary entourage?
I live in east Tennessee where we have a landscape that could be similar to the photo. We have long ridges, 80 to 100 miles long that are upthrust and sinusoidal along the length. We have short ridges that are also upthrust and exhibit peaks and gaps. We have ice cream cone peaks in long series where there is no ridge, the upthrust was not as great as those forming ridges, but often as long.
This terrain is typical in east Tennessee and south west VirginiA. It is as if a rug were pushed inward with a transverse ripple along the fold lines
Like Rocky Top in Nashville?
.....Like Rocky Top in Nashville?....
The wrinkling and mountains, hence Rocky Top, are in East Tennessee.
Nashville is 200+ miles west and flatlands.
Thus endeth the enlightenment :}
Nashville is flatlands? Ha! Not when I was there a few years ago.
Some enlightenment!
it’s relative.
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