Love this shot of the Saturnian moon Enceladus, showing the plumes of water ice it’s ejecting. The faint line in the image is Saturn’s E ring, which is likely made of the water-ice ejected from the active moon. Another great aspect of the image is the lighting – the intense, thin crescent on the left is the light from the Sun, whereas the more global light on the right is reflected sunlight from Saturn.
(more information here, as well as links to a larger version)
It’s worth contemplating the fact that there’s a tiny piece of human ingenuity out there taking these wonderful images, orbiting one of the giants of the solar system. Inspiring.
