Sentences with phrase «active icy moons»

Not exact matches

The seemingly bleak icy surfaces of these moons are in fact among the most active landscapes in the solar system.

A team of researchers led by Cornell's Radwan Tajeddine examined Cassini data and found evidence that the active south polar region of Enceladus — the fractured terrain seen here at bottom — may have originally been closer to the icy moon's equator.

A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus, according to new research using data from NASA's Cassini mission.

Cassini is scheduled to make a close flyby of Enceladus on Oct. 28, in the mission's deepest - ever dive through the moon's active plume of icy material.

For example, Cassini discovered that the Saturn satellite Enceladus is a mini-world of active jets — geyser - like phenomena that blast out water vapor and ice particles from the huge, salty ocean that lies beneath the moon's icy crust.

Cassini first revealed active geological processes on Enceladus in 2005 with evidence of an icy spray issuing from the moon's south polar region and higher - than - expected temperatures in the icy surface there.

The water - rich moon is «one of the few places beyond Earth where we can watch geology happen in real time, giving us a primer for understanding other, less active, icy worlds,» John Spencer, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., who was not involved in the study, wrote in a commentary.

According to two science papers, the results are the first clear indications an icy moon may have similar ongoing active processes.

Neptune's moon Triton has active volcanoes that do not spew out hot magma like familiar Earth - bound volcanoes do, but giant jets of icy liquid nitrogen instead.