Simply Astonishing: Enceladus, the Jet-Powered Moon

The plumes of Enceladus are highlighted in this Cassini image. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

[/caption]

What an astonishing view of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, as seen by Cassini! At least four different plumes of water ice are spewing out from the south polar region, highlighted because of the black space behind the Moon. On Twitter, Carolyn Porco said that we see four jets because we’re looking down the four tiger stripe fractures crossing the south pole. “How lovely it is to know!” she added.

Cassini was about 617,000 kilometers (383,000 miles) away from Enceladus when it captured this image.

Remove All Ads on Universe Today

Join our Patreon for as little as $3!

Get the ad-free experience for life

More info: Cassini website

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/