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Raw pictures from the Cassini orbiter throw a spotlight on the rugged terrain of the Saturnian moon Enceladus — as well as the rugged business of sending pictures back to Earth from almost a billion miles away.
The left side of this picture highlights the cracks and crevices on Enceladus' icy surface, which are thought to provide an outlet for geysers of water spewing from the moon's interior. The right side is overlaid with a grid of lines that represent data loss during transmission. Such unprocessed images can still contribute to a clearer picture of Enceladus' surface, once the imaging team at the Colorado-based Space Science Institute does its magic.
The picture was taken during a flyby last Tuesday, from a distance of about 42,625 kilometers (26,640 miles). Still more unprocessed imagery from that flyby are available from the imaging team's website.
"Stay tuned for several 'targeted' flybys of Enceladus coming up in the next several months," team leader Carolyn Porco writes in an email update. "We have three encounters between October 1 and November 6 this year, with closest approach distances ranging from 99 to 1,231 kilometers, and another three between March 27 and May 2 of 2012, all with closest approaches about 75 kilometers. Should be grand."
Porco calls Enceladus "my favorite moon," probably because its warm spots and geysers raise so many interesting questions about what lies beneath. Could there be life? Let's hope future missions will be able to answer that question. In the nearer term, let's hope that the stream of pictures from Cassini continues for a long, long time.
More gems from Saturn and its moons:
- Saturnian moons merge into a quintet
- New up-close look at Saturn's ugly duckling
- Scientists solve mystery of Titan's arrow
- Saturn's 'ice queen' captured
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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I have already dubbed this moon the water pump of the solar system....small mud worms may very likely of taken a grip on the oceans floor, but I am hoping for more than clams and snails, I would not be surprised to find shrimp like crustaceans here.....thing is one of the flybys turned a spectrometer on the mist as it went through it and nothing special "hit the screen" as well, chemical signatures of life would be present in the ice rings of saturn, at least by my best guess. The given is that the products may be very sparse and we really do not have a good eye on the issue yet...I hope we do find something worthwhile of sending out a more dedicated imperial space droid......this moon has what everyone says life needs.....liquid water......meanwhile, it is surely to be a waystation for future travelers, water hole number 7, perhaps, an oasis literally in the middle of nowhere......
I personally believe in suboceanic life on Europa. But Enceladus is also a very promising satellite for the future search in alien life.
Enceladus is "my favorite moon" as well... Other than Luna. With all the talk over the years of Europa harboring life, Enceladus is actually spewing water ice out into space. It has to be warm under that icy crust. I can't bet the farm there's life down there but considering the extremophiles which live at the great depths, temps and pressures under our oceans... Extremely plausible. I hope a lander is dispatched there within my lifetime... Heck I hope a lander is sent somewhere other than Mars in my lifetime.
To me, the two MOST likely places* to harbor water based life. (other than here of course) Someday mankind will actually get over itself, grow up, and put for the effort/resources needed to go to these two moons. Hope I'm alive to see it!!! (*within our solar system!!)
The Moons around Saturn could represent a staging area where missions leaving the Sol Sytem bound for the unknowns of space would stop off at to replenish their water supply before heading off into deep space.
@dwighthuth
That would be the equivelant of stopping at the gas station 1 block from your house before you set out to drive the circumfrence of the planet.
@Scott M-536256
That depends- will we have a space elevator by then? Will we still launch ships from earth? If this hasn't changed, picking up water for consumption or even fuel AFTER leaving the gravity well of Earth would make sense...