Astrophysicists in Germany say they can add evidence to bolster theories that water, one of the precious ingredients for life, exists on the Saturnian moon Enceladus. A tiny satellite measuring just 504 kilometres across, Enceladus has become one of the most fiercely debated objects in the solar system, thanks to close-up pictures taken by the US probe Cassini. Enceladus has a brilliant white shell of ice that is untouched except for some strange-looking grooves and impacts from space rocks. Cassini revealed plumes of water vapour that gush from surface stripes near its south pole, shooting crystal jets upwards for hundreds of kilometres into space. Fuelling discussion about the origin of these strange "cryo-volcanoes" is the fact that icy particles of dust are also mixed in with the eruptions, but beguilingly travel far slower than the vapour.
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