Saturn's little moon Enceladus continues to gush icy particles into orbit, making it one of a select group of geologically active bodies in the solar system, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said Monday. Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) is seen here against the night side of Saturn.
The extended exposure time used to image the plumes also makes the southern hemisphere, illuminated by ring-shine, appear bright.
Cassini acquired the image in visible light with its narrow-angle camera on May 4 at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Enceladus and 2.3 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn.
The spacecraft took the image at a phase angle of 159 degrees. Image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Enceladus.
