Posted on Sep 24, 2020

APOD: 2020 September 24 - Enceladus in Infrared

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Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Enceladus in Infrared." Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of the planet Saturn (there are 82!) and was discovered by William Herschel on August 28, 1789. The Cassini spacecraft began a series of flybys in 2005, and the five panels shown here were produced from data gathered by Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer and Imaging Science Subsystem. Fresh ice is shown in red, highlighting the 'tiger stripes' located on the moon's South Pole. These features correspond to surface fractures that likely connect to an ocean beneath the icy surface shell. The fractures are the source of the moon's icy plumes that continuously spew water vapor, molecular hydrogen, sodium chloride, and other solids into space. What doesn't fall back to the surface of Enceladus as snow escapes and supplies most of the material making up Saturn's E ring.

APOD: 2020 September 24 - Enceladus in Infrared

Posted from apod.nasa.gov

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Hedvika - Enceladus

Hedvika (Hellas/Greece), "Enceladus" from the album "The Evidence Of Absence" (2013), Post metal | Post rock | Atmospheric Sludge Official links - http:/...

Thank you my friend Maj William W. 'Bill' Price for posting the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for Thursday, September 24, 2020 titled "Enceladus in Infrared."
Image: Enceladus in Infrared - Image Credit: VIMS Team, SSI, U. Arizona, U. Nantes, CNRS, ESA, NASA

APOD background
"Image Credit: VIMS Team, SSI, U. Arizona, U. Nantes, CNRS, ESA, NASA
Explanation: One of our Solar System's most tantalizing worlds, icy Saturnian moon Enceladus appears in these detailed hemisphere views from the Cassini spacecraft. In false color, the five panels present 13 years of infrared image data from Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer and Imaging Science Subsystem. Fresh ice is colored red, and the most dramatic features look like long gashes in the 500 kilometer diameter moon's south polar region. They correspond to the location of tiger stripes, surface fractures that likely connect to an ocean beneath the Enceladus ice shell. The fractures are the source of the moon's icy plumes that continuously spew into space. The plumes were discovered by by Cassini in 2005. Now, reddish hues in the northern half of the leading hemisphere view also indicate a recent resurfacing of other regions of the geologically active moon, a world that may hold conditions suitable for life."

Hedvika (Hellas/Greece), "Enceladus" from the album "The Evidence Of Absence" (2013), Post metal | Post rock | Atmospheric Sludge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEqTOL9XyYo

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