Sentences with phrase «wide icy moon»

Not exact matches

The southern pole of Saturn's 300 - mile - wide moon spits an average of 56 gallons of water a second into space via geysers in its icy surface.

Around the south pole of Enceladus — a 500 - kilometer - wide runt of a moon many expected to be rather inert and uninteresting — the orbiter saw tantalizing signs of activity — plumes of water vapor venting into space from fissures in the icy surface.

«I try to imagine how it would be to stand on the surface of this icy object — small enough that a fast sports car could reach escape velocity and drive off into space — and stare up at a 20 - kilometre wide ring system 1000 times closer than the Moon.»

Most likely, scientists have proposed, the tidal flexing induced in a moon's icy surface causes cracks in polar regions to open widest while the satellite is farthest from its parent planet but clamp shut at other times.

It's been a busy time for NASA: Just before the first rover landed on Mars (page 10), the Stardust spacecraft achieved a dazzling double score, collecting pieces of comet Wild 2 (the first sample of a body beyond the moon) and sending back pictures of the comet's 3.1 - mile - wide icy core.

Saturn's icy 246 - mile - wide moon Mimas (near lower left) appears tiny by comparison to the planet's rings, but scientists think the all of the small, icy particles spread over a vast area that comprise the rings are no more than a few times as massive as Mimas.

Saturn's icy moon Mimas (lower L) is seen while looking toward the sunlit side of the planet's rings, and was captured in red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide - angle camera on July 21, 2016, in this handout image from NASA.