#gyser

We are now taking a trip to lovely Saturn! Enceladus is one of her more interesting moons. Unfortunately, it is nowhere near Europa levels of interesting, but it does have a very active interior for being a tiny icy rock. Turns out, the interior is so active that it has a constantly erupting volcano! Now, like Pluto, this volcano is not made of molten rock - it’s far too cold in the outer solar system for that. This one is made of water, originating from the liquid ocean that lies under its icy crust (much like Europa).

This plume of water is actually strong enough that it leaves Enceladus and goes out into space to begin circling Saturn by itself as small icy particles. These particles gradually accumulate over time to create one of Saturn’s famed rings! That’s right; this moon is giving itself up so Saturn can continue to mystify us with her beauty.

Rings actually aren’t that uncommon; Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all have them (with Uranus’s being the next largest). However, Saturn’s rings are massive, and probably were formed from one of its moons getting a bit too close and then being sucked in and ripped apart. The rocky part of the moon then went into Saturn while the icy parts flew out to circle Saturn independently. 

These rings are slowly disappearing, though; ice particles run into each other and accumulate over time to create little mini-moons. Other particles are being lost to space, larger moons, and Saturn itself. Therefore, we should thank Enceladus for doing the opposite and giving itself up so Saturn may remain beautiful for a while longer.

If you want to learn more about how they discovered Enceladus’s plume, check out this article: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/311/5766/1422