Space Scan

Active volcanic plumes above the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured unique views of the two moons, although the probe’s first close encounter with the large moon Rhea was somewhat eclipsed by a sidelong snapshot of the moon Enceladus. Cassini previously detected that the south pole of Enceladus is spewing out a vast plume of water vapor. It stretches hundreds of kilometers from the moon’s surface and keeps Saturn’s E-ring topped up. But, it is now; it has captured the first images of this activity. Cassini was positioned in a way so that the Sun was behind the moon, hence causing one side of Enceladus to be illuminated as a fine crescent, with its volcanic plumes backlit.



At 1500 kilometers across, Rhea is Saturn’s second largest moon. The first raw images of Rhea surprised the scientists. The landscape is the same wasteland seen during more distant flybys, featuring craters up to 400 km wide. But, a more careful analysis will definitely make the picture clearer.



Via: New Scientist