Posted on 09/24/2020 4:30:37 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: One of our Solar System's most tantalizing worlds, icy Saturnian moon Enceladus appears in these detailed hemisphere views from the Cassini spacecraft. In false color, the five panels present 13 years of infrared image data from Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer and Imaging Science Subsystem. Fresh ice is colored red, and the most dramatic features look like long gashes in the 500 kilometer diameter moon's south polar region. They correspond to the location of tiger stripes, surface fractures that likely connect to an ocean beneath the Enceladus ice shell. The fractures are the source of the moon's icy plumes that continuously spew into space. The plumes were discovered by by Cassini in 2005. Now, reddish hues in the northern half of the leading hemisphere view also indicate a recent resurfacing of other regions of the geologically active moon, a world that may hold conditions suitable for life.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then zoom by moving the magnifying glass over an area and then clicking. The side bars will move the zoomed area over the photograph.
Pinging the APOD list.
Does NASA have any missions planned for there? I’d love to get a peak at what’s under the ice.
It’s worth noting that the hottest regions in those “hotspots” are at -100°F... which is about 200°F hotter than the noontime temperature of the rest of Enceladus.
Oops! Tiger stripes. I knew I should have covered my tracks better. :)
“I’d love to get a peak at what’s under the ice.”
I dunno, could be an alien saucer like in “The Thing”
:-))
Thank you for the pings to the APOD! I really enjoy these.
A good sci-fi story idea would have it wanting to get a peak at us...
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