
Like sprinklers hidden beneath the surface, a series of geysers — more than previously thought — are gushing water ice from fissures near the south pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, new images reveal.
The new images were taken during Cassini's flyby on Nov. 21, 2009, and include the best 3-D look ever obtained of a "tiger stripe" — a fissure that sprays icy particles, water vapor and organic compounds. They also show regions of Enceladus that were not well-mapped in previous flybys, including a southern area with crudely circular tectonic patterns.
Both large and small plumes were seen spouting from these famed tigers stripes along Enceladus' south pole. In one mosaic, created by two high-resolution images captured by the narrow-angle camera, 30 individual jets can be seen. More than 20 of them had not been identified before.