Saturn's Enceladus - Tuesday Sept 6 2005

[Richarday]

Why are there no craters on the left half of the moon? There seems to be a very distinct line between the cratered area on the right and the un-cratered area on the left. Shouldn't there be a gradual reduction in the cratering?

[Empeda]

Exactly what all the fuss is about - it means (most probably) that something is shaping the surface i.e. volcanism. This is why there's currently so much fuss being made about the so called 'Tiger stripes'.

[craterchains]

Somewhat reminds me of Jupiter's moon Europa.

[makc]

should I lock this? with so many replies?

[BMAONE23]

Does this moon orbit Saturn in the same fashion as ours does? (One side always facing the planet) If so, it could be that Saturn's gravity well pulls debris into the back side of the moon leaving the front side nearly pristine. Our moon is significantly cratered on the back side.

Just a thought

[Kid]

makc are u jealous?

[Richarday]

If the moon has one side always facing the planet, wouldn’t the craters on the edge of the moon’s profile which faced out into space, be elongated due to the angle at which the objects would strike the moons’ surface. Although I assume that some objects may also come in at a tangent to the planet and impact the moon directly which would result in some round craters on the "edge" of the profile presented to space. Comments?

[craterchains]

Richarday
Good questions to ask, considering the theory's of the formation of our solar system.

What we would expect to see is often not what we expected when we do get to see.