Saturn’s Frozen Moon Just Got a Lot More Interesting
Updated at 8:16 a.m. ET on June 15, 2023.
Of all the celestial bodies orbiting the sun, Enceladus shines brightest. I mean this literally: This small moon of Saturn reflects nearly all the sunlight that touches its surface, because it is covered in thick ice, radiant white and opaque. It is the picture of stillness—except at its south pole, where geysers erupt from cracks in the frozen exterior, betraying the presence of something wonderfully familiar within: a liquid ocean.
Scientists have spent years studying Enceladus and its watery plume, trying to understand the mysterious sea hidden: Researchers have analyzed data collected by a spacecraft as it coasted through particles of Enceladus’s frozen spray. And in those tiny, free-floating samples of the ocean, they have discovered, for the first time, evidence of phosphorus.
