Enceladus Sprays Its Secrets To Cassini

Cassini image of Enceladus from Dec. 2010 showing the moon's icy jets and the hazy E-ring (NASA/JPL/SSI)

Enceladus, Saturn’s 318-mile-wide moon that’s become famous for its ice-spraying southern jets, is on astronomers’ short list of places in our own solar system where extraterrestrial life could be hiding — and on March 27, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was in just the right place to try and sniff it out.

Why does Cassini team director Carolyn Porco think Enceladus is THE place in the solar system where we are most likely to find life? Find out here.

Breaking News: Kepler Team Spots First Earth-Sized Exoplanets

The video above sums up the big astro-news of the day: NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed the existence of not one but TWO Earth-sized planets orbiting a Sun-like star 1,000 light-years away. This is a big deal!

More Hope for Life on Enceladus?

Enceladus' signature ice geysers in action. NASA / JPL / SSI

Researchers on the Cassini mission team have identified large salt grains in the plumes emanating from Saturn’s icy satellite Enceladus, making an even stronger case for the existence of a salty liquid ocean beneath the moon’s frozen surface.