Fact Sheet
Two Moons Rising
The Cassini spacecraft snapped views of Saturn's moons Enceladus (left) and Tethys as it flew past them on August 13 and 14, respectively. Enceladus, seen from a distance of just 11,500 miles (18,500 km), shows wide cracks and wrinkles in its icy surface. Liquid water vents into space from many of these cracks, which are much warmer than the surrounding surface material. Tethys, viewed from a range of 59,100 miles (95,200 km), shows a heavily cratered surface. The craters indicated that the moon's surface is much older than that of Enceladus, which is constantly altered by the pool of warm ice or water below its surface. [NASA/JPL/SSI (2)]
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