Cassini image of the geologically active moon. Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn. You’ve undoubtedly come across quite a few, with one of the best known moons being Enceladus. Despite its small size, Enceladus has a wide range of surface features, ranging from old, heavily cratered regions to young, tect… Enceladus has a radius of approximately 155 miles (252km). Interesting Enceladus Facts. All in all, Enceladus is actually one of the moons of Saturn that we know quite a lot about. As with Europa at Jupiter, scientists suspect that Enceladus could be a habitable world to some forms of life. But it's what lies deep … Enceladus has the same Tectonic features that you might find on Earth, with many groove and ridges. Enceladus … It is the sixth largest moon that orbits Saturn from quite a close proximity. Enceladus Moon Facts. It is known for it’s craters, although there are two large plains on it which are almost complete smooth and crater free. Sources: Image – http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140406.html Profile – http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/enceladus, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/saturniansatfact.html, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), The Ultimate List of TV Shows set in Space or on Other Planets, The Planets and Moons of Star Wars to Scale, Pluto Size, Composition, Distance from Sun & Moons. One of the Giants in Greek mythology is called Enceladus, which is where this moon gets it’s name from. Enceladus orbits this planet at a distance of approximately 148,000 miles (238,000 km). Enceladus is now known to have a subsurface ocean made of liquid water. “odysseymagazine.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. If you’re trying to learn more about the solar system, then it’s worth looking at different moons. Nasa reveal dramatic plan to end 20-year space mission, Pictures: Take a trip through our Solar System, 'Super Saturn' with giant rings is first outside solar system, Tributes paid to CBBC star Archie Lyndhurst. Enceladus is a largely icy world with some percentage of its mass being silicates. It is about 500 kilometres (310 miles) in diameter, making it pretty small. This makes it only 1/200th the size of the planet Saturn, and around 1/10th the size of Saturn’s biggest moon. The name was decided by the son of the man who first discovered it, astronomer Frederick William Herschel. The Cassini spacecraft has imaged these geysers spouting from so-called “tiger stripes” vent areas on this moon. Enceladus was first studied in detail by the Voyager spacecraft. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel and named after the Greek mythological giant Enceladus. It is a moon that is geologically active, with a lot going on on it’s surface. It orbits around Saturn every 1.37 days at an average distance of 148,000 miles (238,000 km). This moon has many craters across it’s surface, with. The moon creates a ring of its own as it orbits Saturnits spray of icy particles spreads out into the space around its orbit, circling the planet to form Saturns E ring. These plumes have provided clues about the planets inner-workings. All surface feature on the moon have been named after characters and places from Arabian Nights. It is only 311 miles (500 km) in diameter, the sixth largest of Saturn's moons. Enceladus is one of Saturn’s inner satellites, along with Mimas and Dione. Enceladus is named after a giant from Greek mythology. This makes it only 1/200th the size of the planet Saturn, and around 1/10th the size of Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan. About as wide as Arizona, Enceladus also has the whitest, most reflective surface in the solar system. Cryovolcanic activity in Enceladus is sending geysers of water ice particles out from underneath the surface. Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, could hold alien life, say Nasa scientists, The Cassini probe that's been studying Saturn and its moons, Jets of water spew from the south pole of Enceladus. Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn and, after Titan, one of the most-studied worlds in the system. Enceladus orbits this planet at a distance of approximately 148,000 miles (238,000 km). Enceladus was the son of Uranus and Gaia, and was matched up against Athena in the battle between the Olympians and the Giants. Jets of water vapour and ice particles erupt from Enceladus' underground ocean through deep icy crevasses called tiger stripes near the moon's south pole. It actually is in a 2:1 orbital resonance with the moon Dione, which means that it does 2 laps around Saturn for every one lap Dione does. The water ice particles spewed from the geysers on Enceladus are being caused from cryovolcanic activity. We first visited and learned about it’s surface in 1981 with the Voyager spacecrafts, and the Cassini-Huygens mission has allowed us to learn even more about it’s surface. The Cassini mission did close flybys of this moon, to map its surface in high resolution. But it's what lies deep below this icy surface that has got scientists really excited! However, there are many different mentions of Enceladus’s death throughout Greek mythology, so we aren’t exactly sure who exactly killed him. These would also study the other moons of Saturn, plus the ring system. Enceladus Moon Facts. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel and named after the Greek mythological giant Enceladus. The Cassini probe may be about to make a dramatic end to its mission, but the information it has provided about Saturn and its moons is still throwing up plenty of fascinating facts for scientists. However, more recent missions into space have given more insight into this moon, and we now know that it has a lot more mass than we thought previously. Enceladus is named after one of the Giants from Greek mythology. Enceladus would be the first of two moons discovered by Herschel, and the sixth moon found orbiting Saturn. Consequently, its surface temperature at noon only reaches −198 °C (−324 °F), far colder than a light-absorbing body would be. Enceladus has a radius of approximately 155 miles (252km). Images from the Cassini spacecraft helped mission scientists deduce and prove the existence of that ocean. In the past, we thought that Enceladus was primarily made up of water ice. It is mentioned that both Athena and Zeus may have killed Enceladus, as well as Dionysus, the God of Wine and son of Zeus. He spotted Enceladus all the way back in 1789, during the first use of his new telescope, which was the largest in the world at the time.