The Cassini-Huygens exploration of Saturn, a seven-year joint venture of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency, is getting a closer look at its current subject of attention, the small moon of Enceladus. Enceladus is one of the most innermost moons of Saturn which scientists had assumed to be largely dead. With a very bright surface it reflects nearly 100 per cent of its heat and thereby has a very cold temperature, minus 330 degrees Fahrenheit.
A surprising discovery was that Enceladus, unlike nearby similar moon Mimas, is geologically active due to the emission of ice particles propelled by water vapor into the atmosphere from its south pole. Enceladus is a small moon of approximately 300 miles radius and the existence of any geological activity for a moon that size has scientists pleasantly baffled. Discovery of geological activity on any moon has been a rare phenomenon so far. The wonderful unexplained mystery behind Enceladus is the cause of the tremendous heat source that is warming the ice. Scientists can only guess that it is due to tidal activity or radioactive mechanisms for now.
At one time it was believed that the heat...