Nasa says Enceladus appears to have tipped away from its original axis by about 55 degrees, more than halfway toward rolling completely onto its side. Photo: iStockNew York: Saturn’s icy, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus may have tipped over in the distant past, possibly due to a collision with a smaller body such as an asteroid, according to new data from Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft. Researchers found evidence that the moon’s spin axis—the line through the north and south poles—has reoriented. In 2005, Cassini discovered that jets of water vapour and icy particles spray from the tiger stripe fractures—evidence that an underground ocean is venting directly into space from beneath the active south polar terrain. The moon’s original poles would have looked more alike before the event that caused Enceladus to tip over and relocate the disrupted tiger-stripe terrain to the moon’s south polar region.

Source: Mint May 31, 2017 12:44 UTC