Enceladus

Close fly-bys of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft revealed an array of narrow linear cracks straddling Enceladus’s south pole, a region of relatively higher temperature. Visible in the false-color composite image on the left, they are called ‘tiger stripes,’ and are fissures in the surface where jets are spraying icy particles, water vapor, and organic compounds. Many jets erupt all along the tiger stripes, and the vigor of individual jets can vary with time. Some scientists think that the warmer the temperatures are at the surface, the greater the likelihood that jets are erupting from liquid. If true, could this liquid subsurface environment enriched with organic molecules be a possible habitat for extraterrestrial life? The image above right shows, in spectacular false-color, a view of jets on the surface of Enceladus spurting their ice particles, water vapor, and trace organic molecules into space!