Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]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. 2020 September 24 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Enceladus in Infrared Image Credit: [3]VIMS Team, [4]SSI, [5]U. Arizona, [6]U. Nantes, [7]ESA, [8]NASA Explanation: One of our Solar System's most [9]tantalizing worlds, icy Saturnian moon Enceladus appears in these detailed hemisphere views from the Cassini spacecraft. In false color, [10]the five panels present 13 years of infrared image data from Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer and Imaging Science Subsystem. [11]Fresh ice is colored red, and the most dramatic features look like long gashes in the [12]500 kilometer diameter moon's south polar region. They correspond to the location of [13]tiger stripes, surface fractures that likely connect to an ocean [14]beneath the Enceladus ice shell. The fractures are the source of the moon's icy plumes that continuously [15]spew into space. The plumes were discovered by by Cassini in 2005. [16]Now, reddish hues in the northern half of the leading hemisphere view also indicate a recent resurfacing of other regions of the geologically active moon, a world that may hold conditions suitable for life. Experts Debate: [17]How will humanity first discover extraterrestrial life? Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space __________________________________________________________________ [18]< | [19]Archive | [20]Submissions | [21]Index | [22]Search | [23]Calendar | [24]RSS | [25]Education | [26]About APOD | [27]Discuss | [28]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [29]Robert Nemiroff ([30]MTU) & [31]Jerry Bonnell ([32]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [33]Specific rights apply. [34]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [35]ASD at [36]NASA / [37]GSFC & [38]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2009/PIA24023_fig1.jpg 3. https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/missions/cassini-vims 4. http://www.spacescience.org/operations.php 5. http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/ 6. http://www.univ-nantes.fr/ 7. http://www.esa.int/ 8. http://www.nasa.gov/ 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140919.html 10. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24023 11. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/infrared-eyes-on-enceladus-hints-of-fresh-ice-in-northern-hemisphere 12. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/enceladus/in-depth/ 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200427.html 14. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EPSC...11..501C 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap051205.html 16. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103520302293 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/debate/debate100th.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200923.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 22. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 27. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200924 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200925.html 29. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 30. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 31. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 32. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 34. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 35. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 36. https://www.nasa.gov/ 37. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 38. http://www.mtu.edu/