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The Whole Enceladus
Science News Online | 05/06/06 | Ron Cowen
Posted on 05/07/2006 2:17:31 PM EDT by KevinDavis
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1628242/posts
Was it the burrito it had for dinner last night?
Saturn Moon May Have Flipped in SpaceMillions of years ago, Saturn's moon Enceladus may have somersaulted in space, creating an ice-spewing hot spot on the moon's south pole, suggest scientists. For now, it is the only explanation why the small satellite sports a very active though isolated polar region. During flybys of Enceladus, the Saturn-orbiting Cassini probe has snapped pictures of gigantic icy plumes, indicating active geysers at the moon's south pole. Researchers who have been studying images and other data collected by the Cassini spacecraft believe a relatively warm blob of ice big enough to sheet New Jersey with a four-mile deep cover rose from beneath Enceladus' frozen surface. It could also have emerged from within its frigid and rocky core. Less dense than the surrounding terrain, the blob would be more susceptible to Saturn's powerful gravitational tug on Enceladus, a grip that at one time seems to have caused the moon to roll over, said Francis Nimmo... It may not have been a solitary incident either, Nimmo said in an interview with Discovery News... The maneuver may not be all that uncommon. Studies of magnetically charged particles around Earth show evidence that the planet's north pole may at one time have resided elsewhere, Nimmo added. Likewise, Uranus's moon Miranda shows evidence of multiple flips, he said... "It's astounding that Cassini found a region of current geological activity on an icy moon that we would expect to be frigidly cold, especially down at this moon's equivalent of Antarctica," added paper co-author Robert Pappalardo, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
by Irene Klotz
May 31, 2006
Discovery News
Tiny Enceladus [a moon of Saturn] May Hold Ingredients of Life
UANews.org (University of Arizona ) | 05 September 2005 | Lori Stiles
Posted on 09/08/2005 7:46:27 AM EDT by PatrickHenry
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1480014/posts
(...or maybe not, now...)