APOD: 2018 July 1 - Fresh Tiger Stripes on Saturn's Enceladus

Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2018 July 1

Explanation: Do underground oceans vent through the tiger stripes on Saturn's moon Enceladus? Long features dubbed tiger stripes are known to bespewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space,creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon's South Poleand creating Saturn's mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from therobot Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here,a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. The unusual surface features dubbedtiger stripes are visible in false-color blue. WhyEnceladus is active remains a mystery, as the neighboring moonMimas,approximately the same size, appearsquite dead.A recent analysis of ejected ice grains has yielded evidence that complex organic molecules exist inside Enceladus.These large carbon-rich molecules bolster -- but do not prove -- that oceans under Enceladus' surface could contain life.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff(MTU) &Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)NASA Official: Phillip NewmanSpecific rights apply.NASA WebPrivacy Policy and Important NoticesA service of:ASD atNASA /GSFC& Michigan Tech. U.

See the article here:

Fresh Tiger Stripes on Saturn's Enceladus - apod.nasa.gov