                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2025 June 10
     A picture of a mostly white orb is shown that has many craters and
    crevasses. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

                           Enceladus in True Color
           Image Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team

   Explanation: Do oceans under the ice of Saturn's moon Enceladus contain
   life? A reason to think so involves long features -- some dubbed tiger
   stripes -- that are known to be spewing ice from the moon's icy
   interior into space. These surface cracks create clouds of fine ice
   particles over the moon's South Pole and create Saturn's mysterious
   E-ring. Evidence for this has come from the robot Cassini spacecraft
   that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here, a high resolution
   image of Enceladus is shown in true color from a close flyby. The deep
   crevasses are partly shadowed. Why Enceladus is active remains a
   mystery, as the neighboring moon Mimas, approximately the same size,
   appears quite dead. A analysis of ejected ice grains has yielded
   evidence that complex organic molecules. These large carbon-rich
   molecules bolster -- but do not prove -- that oceans under Enceladus'
   surface could contain life.

    APOD Turns 30!: Free public lecture in Anchorage tomorrow (Wednesday)
                                   at 7 pm
                         Tomorrow's picture: top 25
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

