Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Enceladus - Sixth Largest Moon of Saturn


Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun and one of the gas giants in our solar system has 7 moons in addition to a prominent system of rings. One of these moons, Enceladus, is especially interesting to us humans because it is made mostly of water-ice and could possibly support life. It's diameter is roughly 500 km (15% of the moon's) and has a mass of about 0.2% of the moon's mass. Certain areas of the moon's surface lack craters indicating a dynamic surface similar to the floating ice sheets in the Earth's arctic regions. Water vapor has also been observed spewing from the surface. I found the image here and it is licensed under a Creative Commons liscence.

No comments: