Enceladus on Earth
All terrestrial photos taken by and © Bruce G. Marcot.
Fractured Ice
Enceladus is a moon of Saturn, orbiting so distant from the sun that its surface
is frozen ... but not solid. Images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft
show the surface to bear a resemblance to winter sea ice on Earth ...
First,
here are three photos I took of winter sea ice on a flight across Canada's Baffin
Bay:
Now, compare the above images to NASA's Cassini images of the surface of
Enceladus, suggesting that Enceladus may have a liquid or semi-liquid ocean
beneath the frozen surface, that churns the surface ice into stripes and ridges
much as occurs on Earth's Arctic oceans. (Of course, Enceladus' surface
also contains impact craters not found on Earth's ocean surface.)
