Cosmic Scale
Enceladus
Moon of Saturn · 1.4 billion km from the Sun
How big is Enceladus?
Enceladus is about 504 km across.
See Enceladus in 3D, at true scale
Enceladus hides a global ocean of salty water beneath an icy shell. More than a hundred geysers at its south pole jet that water hundreds of kilometres into space, where it feeds one of Saturn's rings. The Cassini spacecraft flew straight through the plumes and tasted them.
At a glance
| Diameter | 504 km |
|---|---|
| Mass | 1.08 × 10²⁰ kg |
| Diameter compared with Earth | 0.040 × Earth |
| Orbits | Saturn, every 1.4 days |
| Ocean depth | About 10 km, under 5–25 km of ice |
| Surface | About −200 °C |
| Discovered | 1789, William Herschel |
Good to know
- Its fresh ice reflects about 80% of the sunlight that hits it, making it the most reflective body in the Solar System.
- Cassini found salts, silica and organic molecules in the plume — signs of warm water meeting rock on the ocean floor.
- The spray forms Saturn's faint E ring, which the moon flies through.