Jets of fine, icy particles streaming from Saturn’s moon Enceladus were captured in recent images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The images provide unambiguous visual evidence that the moon is geologically active.
“For planetary explorers like us, there is little that can compare to the sighting of activity on another solar system body,” said Dr. Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
“This has been a heart-stopper, and surely one of our most thrilling results.”
The quality and range of images from Cassini is fascinating.
It’s worth keeping an eye on the NASA/JPL sites, lots of wonderful stuff keeps coming from them! Sometimes I wonder if people who still say the US spends too much on space exploration care about these images and science coming out of these missions. And if anyone still compares NASA’s budget with Defense spendings… You see, you can send a mission to Saturn for the cost of just one day or so in Iraq…