Enceladus fires aft thrusters!
Nasa's Saturn-explorer Cassini, has returned some of the most beatiful images of our solar system and – more often than not – the star of the show is the small Saturnian moon, Enceladus.
This tiny moon would be an unremarkable lump of ice if it wasn’t for a quirk in its orbit that sees it travelling in an ellipse. This means that in periods of its orbit it is subjected to an increasing and decreasing pull from Saturn’s gravity. This flexes the moon’s icy interior, creating This tiny moon would be an unremarkable lump of ice if it wasn’t for a quirk in its orbit that sees it travelling in an ellipse. This means that in periods of its orbit it is subjected to an increasing and decreasing pull from Saturn’s gravity. This flexes the moon’s icy interior, creating heat (like when you stretch and compress a squash ball) which melts its water ice, possibly creating an internal liquid ocean.
In the court of the planets, red-eyed King Jupiter reigned supreme. Nothing rivalled his size, the violence of his atmosphere, the pull of his gravity or the number of moons he held subject to his will. For billions of years his only rival in the heavenly sphere was Saturn who, although a gas giant himself, could never rival his brother’s might. So, like many a subordinate royal sibling, Saturn sought to outdo his brother in the only way he could.He gathered sparkling jewels which he laid about himself in delicate rings; he became the dandy of the heavenly court; he became the king of bling.