Explaining the Tiger Stripes of Enceladus (IMAGE)

University of California - Davis

Explaining the Tiger Stripes of Enceladus

Caption

Slashed across the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus are four straight, parallel fissures or "tiger stripes" from which water erupts. These fissures aren't quite like anything else in the Solar System. Now researchers at UC Davis, the Carnegie Institution and UC Berkeley have an explanation. Using numerical modeling, they explain how tidal heating causes the fissures and their spacing. This false color image from the Cassini mission shows the fissures in blue.

Credit

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

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