Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Liquid water (and potential life) on one of Saturn’s moons?? Egads!! Okay, that 'Egads' part was a bit retarded...or flat-out retarded...but the part about water being on one of the worlds orbiting Saturn is quite interesting. The moon in question is Enceladus, whose water-rich geysers were detected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft early last year. This oughta’ make another mission to that moon a top priority...even a higher priority than sending a space probe to Jupiter’s satellite Europa, which may harbor a water ocean beneath its surface. Why is Enceladus a top priority, you ask?? Read this entry's opening yellow sentence again please, haha. From what scientists have studied so far, Enceladus has a far greater chance of harboring life (microbial life, that is) than Europa and even Mars combined. Go to this interesting MSN.com article to read what the scientists have learned. Or visit NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory website for more news as well as additional photos of the Saturn moon. And don’t forget, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (or MRO for short) begins its orbit insertion maneuver around the Red Planet tomorrow at 1:24 PM Pacific Standard Time. ‘Kay, I’ll stop talking like a geek now.
Geysers erupting on the southern part of Enceladus
in February of 2005. NASA's Cassini spacecraft took
this photo.
UPDATE (March 10): So did MRO successfully enter orbit around the Red Planet?? If it didn't, I wouldn't be posting this illustration below. But it did, so there.
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