Image 4-18
Icy Moon Enceladus
This image shows Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. It was taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The color has been enhanced to bring out subtle details. Enceladus is only 313 miles (504 kilometers) in diameter, making it Saturn's sixth largest moon. The many cracks and fissures combined with a relative lack of craters indicate that this moon is very geologically active.The visible wrinkles in this image are actually gigantic cracks in the surface ice. They are most likely formed as the small moon is stretched by Saturn's strong gravitational forces. It is believed that Enceladus may have a liquid water ocean beneath its ice.
NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute
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