Wallpaper: Enceladus Portrait

Wallpaper: EnceladusDuring my run through posting images of the major moons of the solar system, I felt compelled to include this tiny 600km moon in the mix as it has suprised most scientists to be quite an active little place. Usually any body as small as Enceladus would fail to have any geological activity, but in 2006 the Cassini spacecraft discovered that there are several active geysers spewing water and ice into the space around it. These geysers have even established a tenuous atmosphere of mostly water vapor at the southern poles where the geysers are located.

WALLPAPER NOTE: I have to be honest… those stripes in the southern region with the geysers… they aren’t really blue. They would be bright gray like all the rest. Its just irresistable to use the blueish tones because they outline where all this geological activity is going on. I usually don’t use false-color.