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From
Raw Story
Enceladus is little bigger than a lump of rock and has appeared, until
recently, as a mere pinprick of light in astronomers’ telescopes. Yet
Saturn’s tiny moon has suddenly become a major attraction for
scientists. Many now believe it offers the best hope we have of
discovering life on another world inside our solar system.
[...]
Cassini’s observations suggest Enceladus possesses a subterranean
ocean that is kept liquid by the moon’s internal heat. “We are not sure
where that energy is coming from,” McKay admits. “The source is
producing around 16 gigawatts of power and looks very like the
geothermal energy sources we have on Earth – like the deep vents we see
in our ocean beds and which bubble up hot gases.”
At the moon’s south pole, Enceladus’s underground ocean appears to
rise close to the surface. At a few sites, cracks have developed and
water is bubbling to the surface before being vented into space, along
with complex organic chemicals that also appear to have built up in its
sea.
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