Today is the birthday of astronomer and composer
Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), who is perhaps best known for discovering the planet
Uranus in 1781 (no naughty jokes, please – that’s MY role), but who also discovered four of the moons of Saturn. Here’s one of those four moons, Enceladus, as photographed by the Cassini-Huygens space craft …
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This dramatic composite of 28 photos was
Astronomy Picture of the Day on December 22, 2008. According to NASA’s accompanying explanation, parts of the surface of Enceladus roll along “like a conveyor belt,” owing to a mysterious phenomenon called “asymmetric tectonic activity.”
Asymmetric tectonic activity. Hmmm. If I’m not mistaken, that’s also what Elton John was talking about a couple of posts below:
Laughing like children
Living like lovers
Rolling like thunder
Under the covers ….
Well, anyway. In my little world, one thing always leads to another. Enceladus is also the moon that shoots geysers into space (which, coincidentally, I
blogged about recently), making it one of just four bodies in the Solar System to show evidence of water.
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Hello. Geysers seem to go quite well with the idea of asymmetric tectonic activity … if you know what I mean.
Now, just in case you were wondering, and I’m pretty sure you weren’t, here’s how mythology and astronomy come together in this post. In Greek mythology,
Enceladus is one of the Giants, enormous children of Gaia (Mother Earth), who were fathered by the blood of Uranus (Ouranos) (the sky) after his overthrow by one of his other children, Saturn (Kronos) … a story retold in wonderfully lyric, but graphic, detail by Dr. Spivey in SONGS ON BRONZE. Enceladus later died by the hand of Athena during a battle between the Giants and the gods of Mt. Olympus.
No, not the Yankees …. Sheesh.
Anyway, according to legend, Enceladus was buried under Mt. Etna; and his agony is responsible for Etna’s volcanic rumblings.
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Oh, my goodness. Did you see THAT? Moonstone just snuck a picture of a volcano into this post. A volcano with a geyser, as a matter of fact.
Well. I won’t tell if you don’t. And, personally, I don’t buy the part about agony. I’m pretty sure our friend Enceladus is just having fun …
Asymmetric tectonic activity, doncha know.
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