I Just read where scientists examining data from the Cassini probe have found a huge cloud of water vapor over Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, which was thought to be cold and dead. The reseachers attribute the cloud to heat leaking out of the crack in the south polar region of the 300 mile wide moon. The finding makes Enceladus only the third place in the solar system--after Earth and Jupiter's volcanic moon Io-- where hot spots caused by geological activity have been detected. Enceladus' surface is torn by innumerable fractures. It is the brightest moon in the Solar System, with a surface that is almost pure white, and seems to be the source of the huge E ring around Saturn. On July 14, Cassini flew 109 miles above the moon's surface. An analysis found that the south pole was the warmest place on the moon, with the temperatures in small area reaching more than 261 degrees fahrenheit. JM
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