Enceladus

The name derives from the giant Enceladus of Greek mythology; John Herschel suggested naming Saturn's satellites after Titans and related figures in 1847, and the moon was named Enceladus following that practice. The supplied sources do not provide a mythic narrative for the moon itself or a folkloric origin beyond this naming connection.

A small icy moon about 500 km in diameter with a highly reflective, clean icy surface where plume fallout has deposited fresh ice in places now several hundred meters thick. Surface terrains include old, heavily cratered regions and much younger tectonically deformed areas; the south polar region shows active fractures and vents. Surface temperatures at local noon reach about −198 °C (75.1 K).

Observed geophysical processes include active cryovolcanism: more than 100 south-polar geysers that vent water vapor, molecular hydrogen, other volatiles, sodium chloride crystals, and ice particles into space at a combined estimated rate of about 200 kilograms per second. Cassini mission data indicate a south-polar subsurface ocean on the order of ~10 km thickness and plume chemistry consistent with possible hydrothermal activity; Enceladus supplies much of Saturn's E ring and is maintained in part by tidal heating from a 2:1 orbital resonance with Dione.