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The shadow of the body of Enceladus on the lower portions of the jets is clearly visible. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this image of Enceladus on Nov. Only a small fraction of the material ends up in the ring, however, with most of it falling like snow back to the moon’s surface, which helps keep Enceladus bright white. The eruptions appear to be continuous, generating an enormous halo of fine ice dust around Enceladus, which supplies material to Saturn's E-ring. In 2005, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered that icy water particles and gas gush from the moon’s surface at approximately 800 miles per hour (400 meters per second). The area is also littered with house-sized ice boulders and regions carved by tectonic patterns unique to this region of the moon. In particular, the south polar region of Enceladus is almost entirely free of impact craters. Parts of Enceladus show craters up to 22 miles (35 kilometers) in diameter, while other regions have few craters, indicating major resurfacing events in the geologically recent past. Dione’s gravity stretches Enceladus’ orbit into an elliptical shape, so Enceladus is sometimes closer and other times farther from Saturn, causing tidal heating within the moon. Enceladus orbits Saturn twice every time Dione, a larger moon, orbits once.
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Also, like some other moons in the extensive systems of the giant planets, Enceladus is trapped in what’s called an orbital resonance, which is when two or more moons line up with their parent planet at regular intervals and interact gravitationally.
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It completes one orbit every 32.9 hours within the densest part of Saturn's E Ring. Enceladus is tidally locked with Saturn, keeping the same face toward the planet. Credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD)Ībout as wide as Arizona, Enceladus orbits Saturn at a distance of 148,000 miles (238,000 kilometers) between the orbits of two other moons, Mimas and Tethys. But it is not as cold and inactive a place as it appears.Ī 3D model of Saturn's moon Enceladus, an icy moon with a hidden subsurface ocean. For decades, scientists didn’t know why.īecause Enceladus reflects so much sunlight, the surface temperature is extremely cold, about minus 330 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 201 degrees Celsius). In fact, Enceladus is the most reflective body in the solar system. Pictures from the Voyager spacecraft in the 1980s indicated that although this moon is small-only about 310 miles (500 kilometers) across - its icy surface is remarkably smooth in some places, and bright white all over. The moon creates a ring of its own as it orbits Saturn-its spray of icy particles spreads out into the space around its orbit, circling the planet to form Saturn’s E ring.Įnceladus is named after a giant in Greek mythology. From these samples, scientists have determined that Enceladus has most of the chemical ingredients needed for life, and likely has hydrothermal vents spewing out hot, mineral-rich water into its ocean.Ībout as wide as Arizona, Enceladus also has the whitest, most reflective surface in the solar system. A handful of worlds are thought to have liquid water oceans beneath their frozen shell, but Enceladus sprays its ocean out into space where a spacecraft can sample it. Few worlds in our solar system are as compelling as Saturn’s icy ocean moon Enceladus.