Searching for Warmth Target Name:   Enceladus Spacecraft:   Cassini Orbiter Instrument:   Imaging Science Subsystem Produced by:   NASA/JPL/GSFC/Space Science Institute Copyright:  NASA Copyright Free Policy Cross Reference:   PIA07793 Date Released:  11 March 2006

• Enceladus
• Saturn

The exciting mystery of an active south polar region on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus continues to unfold as scientists make the correlation between geologically youthful surface fractures and unusually warm temperatures.

This view shows excess heat radiation from cracks near the moon's south pole. These warm fissures are the source of plumes of dust and gas seen by multiple instruments on the Cassini spacecraft during its flyby of Enceladus on July 14, 2005, as described in a series of papers in the March 10, 2006, issue of the journal Science.

This image shows two arrays of temperature readings across the surface of Enceladus, as measured by the Cassini composite infrared spectrometer, superimposed on images of the surface taken simultaneously by the imaging science subsystem.

Surface temperatures in Kelvin, derived from the intensity of infrared radiation detected by the composite infrared spectrometer, are shown along with their formal uncertainties, although true uncertainties for temperatures below about 75 Kelvin (minus 325 degrees Fahrenheit) are not easily described by a single number.

Enhanced thermal emission is seen in the vicinity of the prominent "tiger stripe" fissures discovered by the imaging cameras. In this image, the excess emission is most strongly seen in the left-most composite infrared spectrometer field of view, which includes a fissure near the end of one of the tiger stripes. The peak temperatures, 86 Kelvin and 90 Kelvin (minus 305 and minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit) respectively, are averages over the composite infrared spectrometer field of view, and other composite infrared spectrometer data suggest that much higher temperatures, up to at least 145 Kelvin (minus 199 degrees Fahrenheit), occur in narrow zones a few hundred meters wide along the tiger stripe fissures. See PIA07794 for a related image.

This image is centered near longitude 135 west, latitude 65 south, and each square from the composite infrared spectrometer field of view is 17.5 kilometers (10.9 miles) across.

This Cassini narrow-angle camera image has been cropped and resized for presentation.