The Fountains of Enceladus
This has to be one of the greatest, most alien images ever taken from robotic spacecraft. It approaches how I might expect Enceladus to be depicted if it were in a Star Trek movie. As if the plumes at the edge of the disk back-lit by the Sun were not enough… the trail of smaller plumes breaking through the darkness is absolutely fantastic. The above is a real image but the color is an artistic interpretation by someone would know. Considering how little color is usually found at Enceladus, we can image this is really as good as if it were compiled from a full RGB set of filters. A larger monotone of the same image here.
This image was compiled by Astro0 on unmannedspaceflight.com. Also one of the best views staring down the length of one of Enceladus’ “tiger stripes”.
Ever so sharp look straight down on the South Pole of Enceladus from 1,855 km.
March 29th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
The first photo with the plumes back-lit by the sun is stunning. I had to google ‘Enceladus’ to find out what I was looking at but thanks for sharing! The sharp detail on the 3rd photo is pretty amazing too.
April 4th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
In complete agreement with Jason, purely stunning! I found some new wallpapers from these cool pics! Thanks again for sharing it’s really awesome!
April 4th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
I happened upon your site while looking for the mythological Enceladus on Google. If I’m not mistaken, these pictures depict one of the moons of the planet Saturn. Interestingly, the plumes in your first picture are allegedly responsible for the outermost ring of Saturn. Cool, I learned something new today!
The pictures are awesome, by the way. Thanks for sharing.
Best wishes,
Jordan M.
April 6th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
The second photo reminds me of going over the rockies in the middle of winter and all the mountains are snowscaped. Except this terrain looks much rougher. Very cool pictures of Enceladus. Keep them coming.
April 6th, 2011 at 11:23 pm
At first glance, I thought it was our moon…turns out it’s Saturn’s. From the looks of it, I’m guessing there have been traces of water here. The first photo is just spectacular, the second one looks a bit weird though.
April 7th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Yep, the 6th largest moon of Saturn - beautiful images
April 11th, 2011 at 7:33 pm
The plumes are created by giant geysers spewing out water ice particles. Scientists believe that there are liquid reservoirs underneath the moons surface. Fascinating… Great photos by the way.
Ray
April 23rd, 2011 at 10:03 am
@Ray: Are these plumes of recent origins or built thousands of years ago?
April 26th, 2011 at 3:00 am
Regardless of where they were taken these images are quite beautiful and superb photographs, even if they have been touched up in one way or another. A good reminder though of how ignorant we are about our universe and what wonders there are yet to explore.
May 3rd, 2011 at 2:26 am
I agree with you guys, the first photo is really spectacular, and the rest are a bit weird, but I don’t think they’re much different than what we see on beaches or desserts here.
July 3rd, 2011 at 11:59 pm
Agree. This photos are not just spectacular but it was really amazing and unbelievable. This is such a good reminder though of how ignorant we are about our universe and what wonders there are yet to explore.
July 13th, 2011 at 1:41 am
It shows discrete plumes of a variety of apparent sizes above the limb of the moon.The greatly enhanced and colorized image shows the enormous extent of the fainter, larger-scale component of the plume.
July 14th, 2011 at 3:04 am
I cant say more rather than to agree to all of you guys. The first picture, amazing! I feel like there will be someone who will come out anytime walking with space suite.
August 4th, 2011 at 12:54 am
The detail in those pictures is incredible. Some time in the future we will have a manned flight and land on one of Saturn’s moons. Yeah, it about a 1000 years or so!
October 16th, 2011 at 8:36 am
Wow beautiful images