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Enceladus
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The Breath of Enceladus
"The image shows a viewpoint from within one of the tiger stripe fractures just as Enceladus is coming out of Saturn eclipse. Sunlight reddened by its passage through Saturn's atmosphere illuminates a fractured, glittering ice crystal-covered landscape, revealing two ghostly, active plumes -- the 'breath' of Enceladus."
Garry L. Harwood © 2008
Artist's Website
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Enceladus
"Enceladus, one of Saturn's many icy moons, is now known to possess underground reservoirs of liquid water which sometimes erupt to the surface in the form of great jets or geysers. These keep the moon's surface sparkling white, and even add material to Saturn's rings."
Joe Bergeron © 2006
Artist's Website
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Avg Rating: 8.67/10
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Geysers of Enceladus
"Astronomical art, on a human scale, must often rely on images and non-visual data obtained at great distances. Enceladus is no exception. While we have seen spectacular detail in Cassini's close encounters, the view experienced from the surface must involve an educated leap of faith. The painting uses the average human field of view, which is a bit less than 40 degrees. I began this digital painting by combining seven grayscale images from Cassini of Saturn itself. I then drew a topographic map of a section of the Tiger Stripes, relying as heavily as possible on Cassini images, but going beyond them for the kind of resolution I wanted in my landscape."
Michael Carroll © 2006
Artist's Website
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Avg Rating: 10/10
JPEG 299 KB
PNG 683 KB
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Avg Rating: 10/10
JPEG 183 KB
PNG 367 KB
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A Water Crystal Geyser on Enceladus
"We all know what water geysers look like on Earth, but what would one look like in world where there is no atmosphere to speak of, surface temperature is -330° F, and the escape velocity is only 870 km/hr? I imagined a geyser that was more a diaphanous aurora of ice crystals than a spray of water. In my rendering, some of the crystals have repeatedly combined to form snow heavy enough to fall back to the surface, while smaller crystals head off into space. Irregular sprays, varying velocities, and perhaps even electrostatic forces, contribute to the geyser’s chaotic appearance. Saturn itself appears low on the horizon due to the proximity to Enceladus' south pole, and the small white dot immediately to Saturn's left is the icy moon Mimas."
Walter Myers © 2006
Artist's Website
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Saturn from the Surface of Enceladus
"While the surface of Enceladus is reported to be as brilliant as snow in full sun, it would probably appear leaden about an hour before sunrise with a crescent Saturn as the only source of illumination. Subtending an angle of 29º in Enceladus' sky (the same width as 58 Earth moons lined up side-by-side in Earth's sky) Saturn would be a stunning panorama. This image also illustrates a phenomenon only recently discovered by NASA's Cassini probe: sunlight reflecting off of Saturn's rings casts a faint glow onto the cloud tops of Saturn's night side. The illumination is about the same as three of Earth's full moon combined."
Walter Myers © 2006
Artist's Website
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PNG 380 KB
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Avg Rating: 10/10
JPEG 590 KB
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Eruption on Enceladus: South Polar Geyser
"If you are standing at the south pole of Enceladus, which is in the ring plane, the rings have to appear not only edge on, but parallel to the horizon. The angular width of this image is 50 degrees, about what comes from a standard lens on a camera. The venting would appear variable; the gas component is giving some bluish scattering, although there are some whiter ice particles and warmer toned organic dust in the plume. For the surface, I wanted to show a scene near one of the fractures, and I visualized that in at least some places along fractures we might see shattered ice squeeze-ups, where faulting had jostled ‘plates’ of ice against each other. I visualized some blue color showing up as sunlight passed through some of the cleaner ice slabs, as seen in glacial ice on Earth. I also indicated some coloration of the icy gravel by organics in the foreground and along the fracture at right, but the clean white ice of Enceladus, with some of the highest albedos in the solar system, can be seen in the distance."
Bill Hartmann © 2006
Artist's Website
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Saturn From Enceladus
"Saturn as seen from the freezing surface of Enceladus. Here, plumes of gas and ice particles burst from beneath the ground."
David-Kingsley Kendel © 2007
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Avg Rating: 10/10
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PNG 321 KB
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