Word: mooning
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...biologists, that's huge. The only way to account for that particular chemistry is if the salts have dissolved out of rocks in the interior of Enceladus into a large quantity of standing water, as would occur if the moon had a subsurface ocean. "Both components [table salt and carbonates] are in concentrations that match the predicted composition of an Enceladus ocean," says Postberg. "The carbonates also provide a slightly alkaline pH value, which could provide a suitable environment on Enceladus for life precursors...
...moon that hangs in the frigid depths of the solar system could keep water in a liquid state is not much of a mystery. Too small to have a molten core and too far from the sun to feel even a flicker of its heat, Enceladus does have other moons - principally outlying Tethys and Dione - orbiting nearby. Each time those moons pass, they give Enceladus a gravitational tug, which causes it to flex slightly. Do that enough times - and the 4 billion years the solar system has been around is more than enough - and the pulsing moon heats...
...book on Enceladus is by no means closed, and Cassini has two more flybys of the moon scheduled for November. Scientists aren't expecting to find proof of biology there anytime soon - but now, at least, they've got a good reason to look...
...interactive graphic of landing sites on the moon...
...Foreign powers from the U.S. to Israel have been rebuked by the Iranian regime in recent days. When U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Iran to respect the "will of its people" amid violence that has claimed at least 18 lives since the poll, Tehran chided him for "meddling." But Iran has reserved much of its vitriol for Britain. "The diplomats who have talked to us with courtesy up to now have in the past few days taken the masks away from their faces and are showing their true image," Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, said...