Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
Saturn's Cleanest Moon: Enceladus
Explanation:
Enceladus [ http://seds.lpl.ari…] orbits Saturn [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] between the smaller Mimas [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and the larger Tethys [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Enceladus is composed mostly of water ice and has the cleanest and purest ice surface in the Solar System [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. It's surface therefore appears nearly white. The surface also has many unusual groves and relatively few craters, like Jupiter [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]'s moon Ganymede [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. This indicates that the surface is young and/or newly reformed. To explain this, some astronomers speculate that Enceladus [ http://www.c3.lanl.…] is susceptible to some sort of volcanic [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] activity. Enceladus was originally discovered in 1789 by William Herschel [ http://star.arm.ac.…].
Credit and Copyright:
NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/], JPL [ http://www.jpl.nasa…], Voyager [ http://vraptor.jpl.…] 2
facet_when:
1789
facet_where:
Ganymede
facet_where:
Arizona
facet_where:
Saturn
facet_where:
Enceladus
facet_where:
Jupiter
facet_where:
Tethys
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_what:
Voyager
facet_what:
Ganymede
facet_what:
Moon
facet_what:
Saturn
facet_what:
Enceladus
facet_what:
Jupiter
facet_what:
Tethys
facet_what:
Mimas
facet_what:
moon
facet_when_year:
1789
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap951125

Saturn's Cleanest Moon: Enceladus
Add To Workspace Export