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原文:
Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus poses above the gas giant’s icy rings in this Cassini spacecraft image. The dramatic scene was captured on July 29, while Cassini cruised just below the ring plane, its cameras looking back in a nearly sunward direction about 1 million kilometers from the moon’s bright crescent. At 500 kilometers in diameter, Enceladus is a surprisingly active moon though, its remarkable south polar geysers are visible venting beyond a dark southern limb. In fact, data collected during Cassini’s flybys and years of images have recently revealed the presence of a global ocean of liquid water beneath this moon’s icy crust. Demonstrating the tantalizing liquid layer’s global extent, the careful analysis indicates surface and core are not rigidly connected, with Enceladus rocking slightly back and forth in its orbit.
中文翻譯:
📸 在這張卡西尼太空船捕捉的壯觀影像中,土星的冰冷衛星恩克拉多斯(Enceladus)高掛於這顆氣態巨星的冰環之上。這幕戲劇性的場景是在7月29日拍攝的,當時卡西尼正從環平面下方巡航,攝像頭向回望去,幾乎朝向太陽的方向,距離這個明亮新月約100萬公里。
🌌 恩克拉多斯的直徑約500公里,卻是一個出乎意料的活躍衛星,其驚人的南極噴泉就在黑暗的南邊輪廓之外可見噴發。事實上,通過卡西尼的近距離飛掠及多年拍攝的數據,最近發現這個衛星的冰殼下存在著一個全球性的液態水海洋。仔細分析的數據顯示,表面和核心並沒有牢固固定,恩克拉多斯在其軌道中輕微搖擺,證明這液態層的全球範圍。
#恩克拉多斯 #卡西尼 #土星 #太空探索 #液態水 #衛星 #科學探索 #宇宙奇觀 #NASA #太空攝影 #天文學
來源:NASA每日圖片