Through these cracks—the “tiger stripes”—material from beneath the surface is forced up and out. One possibility is to find it under the icy surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel.
This discovery was made possible thanks to a neat geophysical quirk that happens on Enceladus.
The surface of Enceladus displays fissures, plains, corrugated terrain and a variety of other features.
Enceladus' surface is believed to be geologically "young," possibly less than 100 million years old." The unusual surface features dubbed tiger stripes are visible in false-color blue. This article is about the moon of Saturn; for the mythological giant, see Enceladus (mythology). Pictured here, a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. Why Enceladus is active remains a mystery, as the neighboring moon Mimas,approximately the same size, appears quite dead.
Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s, very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface. What makes Saturn huge is its atmosphere. Jun 22, 2016.
Artistic rendering of the surface of Enceladus. A reason to think that life may exist there are long features -- dubbed tiger stripes -- that are known to be spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space. the surface temperature is extremely cold, about –330 degrees F (–201 degrees C). NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Unusual features of Enceladus include large water geysers spewing icy water hundreds of kilometers into space. An ocean lies a few kilometers beneath Enceladus's icy surface. Saturn’s surface is so dense that the gravity on it is particularly very weak and is only 91% compared to that of Earth’s. Although it has a surface, it is not as solid as other planets. Fractures on Enceladus’ surface cut across other features, indicating they are young and tectonic. On Enceladus, tidal heating produces stress that cracks open the surface ice.
Enceladus may be heated by a tidal mechanism similar to that which provides the heat for volca-noes on Jupiter’s moon Io. Every once in a while, surface cracks appear, shooting plumes of vapor and ice grains into space. Enceladus looks as though it is half lit by sunlight in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, but looks can be deceiving. The surface of Enceladus shows some regions that have a lower number of craters, while other areas have craters that are as large as 22 mi/35 km in diameter. A sliver of surface illuminated by direct sunlight is visible on the left. One of the active "tiger stripe" ridges crosses the scene in the foreground, its active areas a strong … It will not allow anyone to take a stroll on the planet. The area on the right, where surface features can be made out, are actually illuminated by light reflected off of Saturn. A dramatic plume of jets The regions with a percentage of low craters have had some form of activity that has resurfaced and covered the older craters that once existed there. Image: Enceladus and Saturn's rings ... Science X Daily and the Weekly Email Newsletter are free features …