Cassini Captures Stunning View of Enceladus | Space Exploration … – Sci-News.com

NASA has released a new image of Enceladus, the sixth-largest of Saturns moons, taken by the agencys Cassini orbiter.

NASAs Cassini robotic orbiter obtained this image of Saturns moon Enceladus on November 27, 2016. This view looks toward the Saturn-facing hemisphere of the moon. North on Enceladus is up and rotated 6 degrees to the right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Enceladus has a diameter of only 314 miles (505 km), about a tenth of that of Titan.

Discovered on August 28, 1789 by the English astronomer William Herschel, it orbits at 112,000 miles (180,000 km) from Saturns cloud tops, between the orbits of Mimas and Tethys.

Enceladus displays at least five different types of terrain: parts of the moon show craters no larger than 22 miles (35 km) in diameter; other areas show regions with no craters, indicating resurfacing events in the geologically recent past.

There are fissures, plains, corrugated terrain and other crustal deformations.

Because Enceladus reflects almost 100% of the sunlight that strikes it, the surface temperature is extremely cold, about minus 330 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 201 degrees Celsius).

Over the course of the Cassini mission, observations have shown that Enceladus not only has watery jets sending icy grains into space; it also has a global subsurface ocean, and may have hydrothermal activity as well.

Since planetary researchers believe liquid water is a key ingredient for life, the implications for future missions searching for life elsewhere in the Solar System could be significant.

The image was taken in green light with Cassinis narrow-angle camera on November 27, 2016.

The view was acquired at a distance of roughly 81,000 miles (130,000 km) from Enceladus.

Continue reading here:

Cassini Captures Stunning View of Enceladus | Space Exploration ... - Sci-News.com