Enceladus facts for kids

Enceladus is a fascinating moon that orbits the giant planet Saturn. It's one of Saturn's smaller moons, but it's very special because scientists believe it has a hidden ocean of liquid water beneath its icy surface. This makes Enceladus one of the most interesting places in our Solar System to look for signs of life.

Discovery and Name

Enceladus was first spotted by the famous astronomer William Herschel way back in 1789. For a long time, it was just a tiny dot in the sky. It was named after a Giant from Greek mythology. In these ancient stories, Enceladus was a powerful giant who fought against the gods.

What is Enceladus Like?

Enceladus is a relatively small moon, only about 500 kilometers (310 miles) across. That's about the size of the state of Arizona in the United States or the country of Sweden. Its surface is covered in bright, fresh ice, making it one of the most reflective objects in the solar system. This means it bounces back almost all the sunlight that hits it.

Surface Features

The surface of Enceladus is mostly smooth, but it also has some interesting features:

• Craters: Like many moons, Enceladus has impact craters from objects hitting its surface.
• Cracks and Ridges: There are also long, deep cracks and ridges, especially near its south pole. These are sometimes called "tiger stripes" because of their distinctive look.

The Hidden Ocean

One of the most exciting discoveries about Enceladus is its subsurface ocean. Scientists think this ocean is global, meaning it covers the entire moon under its icy shell.

How Do We Know About the Ocean?

The Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn for many years, helped us learn about this ocean. Cassini flew very close to Enceladus and discovered huge plumes, or jets, of water vapor and ice particles erupting from the "tiger stripes" at its south pole.

Geysers and Plumes

These plumes are like giant geysers shooting material hundreds of kilometers into space. The material from these plumes actually helps create one of Saturn's rings, the E ring! By studying the material in these plumes, scientists found:

• Water vapor
• Ice particles
• Salts
• Organic molecules (which are the building blocks of life)

The presence of these materials strongly suggests that there's a warm, salty ocean beneath the ice.

Is There Life on Enceladus?

The discovery of a liquid water ocean, along with heat and organic molecules, makes Enceladus a prime candidate for finding extraterrestrial life. Scientists believe that hydrothermal vents (like hot springs on Earth's ocean floor) might exist at the bottom of Enceladus's ocean. These vents could provide the energy and chemicals needed for simple life forms to survive, even without sunlight.

While no life has been found yet, future missions might be sent to Enceladus to explore its ocean more closely and search for any signs of living organisms.

Images for kids

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  Athena fighting Enceladus (mythological figure).

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  Enceladus (mythological figure) in the garden of Versailles palace.

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  Voyager 2 view of Enceladus in 1981: Samarkand Sulci vertical grooves (lower center); Ali Baba and Aladdin craters (upper left)

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  Enceladus's orbit (red) – Saturn's north pole view

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  Possible origins of methane found in plumes

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  Eruptions on Enceladus look like discrete jets, but may be "curtain eruptions" instead

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  South polar view of the anti-Saturn hemisphere, with fractured areas in blue (false color)

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  Enceladus – tilted terminator – north is up

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  Enceladus – possibility of fresh ice detected (September 18, 2020)

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  Enceladus – Infrared map view (September 29, 2020)

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  View of Enceladus's Europa-like surface with the Labtayt Sulci fractures at center and the Ebony and Cufa dorsa at lower left, imaged by Cassini on February 17, 2005

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  Close-up of south pole terrain

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  Y-shaped discontinuities, imaged February 15, 2016

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  A model of the interior of Enceladus: silicate core (brown); water-ice-rich mantle (white); a proposed diapir under the south pole (noted in the mantle (yellow) and core (red))

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  updated and better scaled version

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  Enceladus – organics on ice grains (artist concept)

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  Chemical composition of Enceladus's plumes

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  Heat map of the south polar fractures, dubbed 'tiger stripes'

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  Enceladus (artist concept; February 24, 2020)

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  Artist's impression of possible hydrothermal activity on Enceladus's ocean floor

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  Animated 3D model of the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft

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  Enceladus transiting the moon Titan

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  Size comparison of Earth, the Moon, and Enceladus

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  A size comparison of Enceladus against the British Isles.

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  Enceladus orbiting within Saturn's E ring

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  Enceladus geyser tendrils - comparison of images ("a";"c") with computer simulations

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  Enceladus south polar region - locations of most active tendril-producing geysers

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  Enceladus and south polar jets (April 13, 2017).

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  Plumes above the limb of Enceladus feeding the E ring

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  A false-color Cassini image of the jets

See also

In Spanish: Encélado (satélite) para niños