Chutzpah
sage
Reged: 08/26/04
Posts: 228
Loc: Cheshire, UK
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Enceladus - just how weird will the solar system get? 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4197686.stm
Just the thought that something could be wriggling blindly around in the (theorised) waters below Enceladus's south pole, orbiting Saturn in the lonely depths of the solar system... Humbling, isn't it? 
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Stevie
8" f6 Newt
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Mike Casey
Postmaster
Reged: 11/11/04
Posts: 5924
Loc: Pasadena CA
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 The same could be said of our own little world orbiting a minor star out here in the Orion arm of our Milky Way galaxy. Who would dream seeing this "Pale blue dot" from afar that it swarmed with such a profusion of strange and wonderful life-forms? From the abyssal depths of our oceans to boiling pools of water in volcanic hot springs and covering just about every inch of habitable earth are a wonderworld of different types of life.
 For what purpose? Another Big Question to ponder.
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Mike (tVA)
I am here to tell you the Truth. We have been created as slaves to be used as batteries for an alien race. You must give up everything you hold dear in this illusionary world so that you may save yourself in the real world.
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ForgottenMObject
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/11/04
Posts: 3585
Loc: Maryland, US
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Bah, life can't exist on Earth!
Think about it: you have all that deadly radiation from space, storms, etc. It is much safer to live like us folks from Enceladus, safely under the crust of a moon. Hehehe...
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Matthew
IDA member
XT8i, 10x50 binoculars, lots of eyepieces
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square_peg
Postmaster
Reged: 03/26/04
Posts: 23989
Loc: Maple Valley, WA
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Great link, Stevie!
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Tom (Pegster)
DSH-8 (GSO Dob)
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History is Philosophy teaching by examples.
Thucydides
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Mike Casey
Postmaster
Reged: 11/11/04
Posts: 5924
Loc: Pasadena CA
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Fresh Tiger Stripes on Saturn's Enceladus
Click the image to get a full 3,237x3,812 highly detailed image:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050906.html
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Mike (tVA)
I am here to tell you the Truth. We have been created as slaves to be used as batteries for an alien race. You must give up everything you hold dear in this illusionary world so that you may save yourself in the real world.
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RobSter
sage
Reged: 06/28/04
Posts: 449
Loc: Nottinghamshire, UK
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Have you seen this? Cassini got to within 175 kilometres of Enceladus. http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMVTX808BE_0.html
It looks like a landing! It just goes on and on...
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Robin
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gazerjim
Postmaster
Reged: 02/12/04
Posts: 7729
Loc: About where I thought I was......
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No words to describe...
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Jim Fisher
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Henry J. Tillman
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MaritimeSky
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/18/04
Posts: 571
Loc: Nova Scotia, Canada
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To top off those views, Cassini has also detected significant atmosphere on Enceladus as well. 
Atmosphere detected on Enceladus
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Jamie D.
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KennyJ
Reged: 04/27/03
Posts: 10163
Loc: Lancashire UK
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Thanks Stevie and the other contributors to this most fascinating thread .
That " fly -by " link which Robin linked us to really is SOMETHING !
I would like to see similar footage filmed from spacecraft coming back to land on earth .
Does anyone know if such footage exists , and if so , more importantly , how to get to SEE it ?
Regards , Kenny
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If everyone is thinking the same thing , no-one is thinking - General George S.Patton
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Scott Beith
SRF
Reged: 11/26/03
Posts: 33099
Loc: Gulfport, MS
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Excellent thread. That thing is really pretty!
The flyby was so cool, I watched it 4X in a row. 
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  Scott
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
"The measure of a man’s greatness is not determined by what he accomplishes for himself, but by what he accomplishes for others.” -- Some Bald Guy
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MMICKELS
Aluminum Knight
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 25198
Loc: The Land of Shake and Bake
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Neat moon!
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Mark
"The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever."
Herb Caen
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Mr. Mac
super member
Reged: 09/26/05
Posts: 146
Loc: Henrico Co., Va.
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I think the longer we look...the weirder it gets!
Thanks for the link.
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Mac
8" Lx200GPS
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Unbridled enthusiasm
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kraterkid
Post Laureate
Reged: 03/07/05
Posts: 3881
Loc: Poway, California
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I know this is totally conjecture and probably doesn't fit the Cassini data at all  , but here's my hypothesis for Enceladus:
5,000 to 10,000 years ago, a 50 km asteroid impacted the southern polar region of this water ice world. The impact posited sufficient energy into the area that regional large scale melting of the surface completely erased existing craters, refaced the surface and created the "tiger stripes" as a result of radial fracturing of the solid ice crust. I guess you could say that the asteroid created a whole new Enchilad...I mean Enceladus! 
Rich 
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Rich
[image]http://www.cloudynights.com/stars/CNS0606.jpg" border="0[/image]
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