July 14, 2022
On this date in 2005, the Cassini spacecraft conducted a flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The surface of Enceladus is covered in a layer of ice approximately 13 miles (20 km) deep. Beneath the ice is a liquid water ocean that spans the entire moon and is about 25 miles (40 km) deep. The deepest part of Earth’s oceans is called Challenger Deep, which is in the western Pacific Ocean, and is 6.8 miles (10.9 km) deep – much shallower than Enceladus’ global ocean.
An illustration of the global ocean and icy crust that encompass Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The thickness of layers shown are not to scale. Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech