The Tiger Stripes Of Enceladus

Scientists have found over centuries, and especially over the most recent few decades, that the closer you look at Nature, the more there is to see, and the more complex Nature looks.

That situation held true again during Cassini's August flyby of the southern hemisphere of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The south polar region of Enceladus is the home of the famed erupting geysers, which in turn explode from cracks in the surface ice shell astronomers have dubbed "tiger stripes." The August flyby-- the closest to that area until 2015-- revealed the tiger stripes in unprecedented detail and showed a more intricate system of cracks than scientists had imagined. Smaller cracks branch from large cracks. While the tiger stripes are warmer than the surrounding surface, there are even warmer hot spots within the crack system. Possibly, such hot spots will host future geyser eruptions.

Of course, warm is relative on Enceladus, but the geyser spray includes organic compounds, which themselves argue for more heat and complexity under the surface. That the tiger stripes, in all their detail, suggest something like a fractal arrangement is further evidence that Nature is infinitely subtle.