Enceladus Jet Sources Vs. Tiger Stripes (Overlay)

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/SwRI/SSI

Original Caption: Heat radiating from the entire length of 150 km-long fractures is seen in this best-yet heat map of the active south polar region of Saturn's ice moon Enceladus. The warmest parts of the fractures tend to lie on locations of the plume jets identified in earlier images, shown in the annotated version with yellow stars. The measurements were obtained by the Cassini spacecraft’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer from the spacecraft’s close flyby of the moon on 12 March 2008.

Remarkably high temperatures, at least 180 Kelvin were registered along the brightest fracture, named Damascus Sulcus, in the lower left portion of the image. For comparison, surface temperatures elsewhere in the south polar region of Enceladus are below 72 Kelvin.

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