Enceladus
Hi All
Enceladus is incredibly smooth. Hardly any cratering. This little moonlet has been resurfaced by tides and god-knows what else...
Enceladus must be mostly slush under an icy insulation layer. The special resonance effects I posted about earlier probably pump more energy into it than Io, per square metre. A bit of ammonia mixed into the ice would allow a more fluid interior than ice alone, but whether there's any astrobiological potential is a tough call. Tidal volcanism alone is a pretty poor energy source. I wonder if there's oxygen creation in the ice via particles in Saturn's mag-field, as proposed for Europa?
Adam
