Re: Horizontal and Vertical Scratches on Enceladus

From: Martin R. Howell (martinhowell_at_ilikestarsisp.com)
Date: 03/25/05 

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 06:58:42 -0800

On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 08:05:22 GMT, David Nakamoto wrote:

> "Martin R. Howell" <martinhowell@ilikestarsisp.com> wrote in message
> news:1111736331.b26f3b21469a36027654c00e4aa3a9c9@teranews...
>> On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 05:02:50 GMT, PaulCsouls wrote:
>>
>>> http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06217
>>>
>>> I'm not trying to infer that intelligent life created this
>>> but winds or magnetic fields or orbital motion
>>
>>>There's an
>>> interesting story behind the formation of this rock.
>>
>>
>> The brief article you cited credits the creation of these vertical and
>> horizontal lines to tectonic forces. That would seem to be the beginning
>> and end of the interesting story. . .at least as my eyes read it.
>
>
> To paraphrase one of the Voyager scientists from many years ago, the idea that
> these features are due to tectonic forces is a speculative guess at this stage,
> backed by some facts. Therefore it is a hypothesis that is a possibility,
> meaning there are a few facts that back it up and none that contradict it, but
> that the weight of the evidence is not enough to make the hypothesis conclusive.
> It is most definitely not the end of the story, and probably not even the
> beginning, but only the preface.

The following is an extraction from the cited article for those who don't
care to follow the link to it:

snip>>
During its very close flyby of Enceladus on March 9, 2005, Cassini took
high resolution images of the icy moon that are helping scientists
interpret the complex topography of this intriguing little world.

This scene is an icy landscape that has been scored by tectonic forces.
Many of the craters in this terrain have been heavily modified, such as the
10-kilometer-wide (6-mile-wide) crater near the upper right that has
prominent north-south fracturing along its northeastern slope.
<<unsnip

It appears that I am guilty of assuming that the people at NASA/JPL know
more than I do about these markings. 

-- 
Martin R. Howell
"Photographs From the Universe of Amateur Astronomy"
http://members.isp.com/universeofamateurastronomy%40isp.com