This unprocessed image of Saturn's moon Enceladus shows plumes of ice particles erupting from the moon’s active south polar region. The image was taken on April 25, 2007, by the Cassini spacecraft.

These ice plumes have excited much interest among scientists, who believe that Enceladus is the likely source for particles, spewed by ice volcanoes, that create Saturn’s outermost E-ring. This unusual geological activity, and the fine icy spray seen in images like these, may be the result of liquid water erupting into the vacuum of space from warm, near-surface chambers of water and simple organic materials. Such a finding would have major astrobiological implications.

North on Enceladus is rotated about 90 degrees to the right in this view. Hints of surface topography are visible along the terminator and at top, where reflected light from Saturn dimly illuminates the moon’s night side.

The bright streak near lower left is a background star that was captured during the exposure while the spacecraft targeted Enceladus.

The image was taken with Cassini's narrow angle camera from a distance of approximately 187,000 kilometers (116,200 miles) from Enceladus. Resolution in the image is about 1 kilometer (3,670 feet) per pixel.