Enceladus

From Slackerpedia Galactica

Enceladus used to be just another boring ice-moon of Saturn. but it recently grabbed a LOT of attention! In November of 2005, the Cassini spacecraft caught an image of a volcano erupting on Enceladus. In the outer solar system, it is very, very cold. That means that the volcano is likely erupting water instead of lava. So what Cassini saw was more like Old Faithful than Mount St. Helens.

This was a pivotal discovery, as it opened up the possibility of liquid water on Enceladus. Many astrobiologists (those scientists who managed to get a grant to study something that may not even exist) believe that liquid water is a necessary precursor for life.

Enceladus was discovered by the over-achieving William Herschel in 1789 (eight years after he discovered Uranus and tried to name it "George").

External Links

Enceladus on Wikipedia