A view of saturn and its moon enceladus , taken by nasa 's cassini spacecraft on august 13 , 2010 .
这是土星及其卫星土卫二的亮丽倩影,由美国宇航局卡西尼号太空飞船于2010年8月13日拍摄。
Brilliantly white it reflects almost 100 % of the light that strikes it , compared with just 12 % for our own moon enceladus is also petite : just 310 miles ( 500 km ) across .
When cassini did a fly-by through one of enceladus 's geysers spewing ice and gas in 2005 , the probe detected carbon , hydrogen , nitrogen and oxygen -- all key elements for supporting living organisms .
Enceladus and europa , for instance , are two icebound moons in the local solar system with surface temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero .
比如,土卫二和木卫二是太阳系中两颗冰封的卫星,表面温度是零下几百度。
Over the past months , nasa 's cassini spacecraft has made several close flybys of saturn 's moons , caught the sun 's reflection glinting off a lake on titan , and has brought us even more tantalizing images of ongoing cryovolcanism on enceladus .
This will provide clues to what life , if any , could survive in liquid oceans that lurk beneath many miles of ice in other parts of the solar system , on jupiter 's moon europa or saturn 's moon enceladus .
Monsters of the lovecraft variety - the kind that will butcher a tenured university professor and take him along as camping provisions - might also find credible habitats on europa or enceladus , at least until space probes can disprove their existence .
It would alsohelp them determine whether enceladus has the conditions necessary forlife .
它也可以帮助科学家判断恩克拉多斯是否存在生命所必需的环境条件。
Scientists say data collected from the mysterious geysers on enceladus may provide new insights on our planetary neighbors and the possibility they may harbor extraterrestrial life .
Dramatic plumes , both large and small , spray water ice out from many locations along the famed ' tiger stripes ' near the south pole of saturn 's moon enceladus .