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Volcanic activities spotted on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has revealed active volcanic plumes above the surface of Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons.

On a previous, much closer pass by Enceladus, Cassini detected that the south pole of Enceladus is spewing out a vast plume of water vapour that stretches hundreds of kilometres from the moon’s surface.

Enceladus is only the third body in the solar system to show signs of active volcanism, besides Earth and Io, Jupiter’s moon. Even though this volcanism is relatively gentle, planetary scientists cannot yet work out what is driving it. The new pictures could help by revealing the muzzle velocity of the moon’s plumes.

posted by: kyawoo at 11:30 | link | comments |
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