Saturn's Icy Moon Enceladus, a Possible Home for Life, Shines in Photo
From Space.com
Icy, harsh and uninhabitable — looking at Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, this may be your initial expectation from the cosmic satellite. But take a closer look at this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft and you might be surprised."Over the course of the Cassini mission, observations have shown that Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across) not only has watery jets sending icy grains into space; under its icy crust it also has a global ocean, and may have hydrothermal activity as well," NASA officals wrote in an image description. "Since scientists believe liquid water is a key ingredient for life, the implications for future missions searching for life elsewhere in our solar system could be significant." [Photos: Enceladus, Saturn's Cold, Bright Moon]
The Cassini spacecraft used its narrow-angle camera and a green filter to snap this image of the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Enceladus on Nov. 27, 2016 (NASA released the image on Feb. 6 of this year). The spacecraft was more than 80,000 miles (129,000 kilometers) from Enceladus at the time,a according to the NASA description.
Read more: http://www.space.com/35659-saturn-moon-enceladus-nasa-cassini-photo.html
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