The Cassini-Huygens mission is a project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The space craft identified the source of geyserlike jets of ice erupting from Saturn's moon Enceladus by analyzing some photos taken from the hovering space craft which passed 30 miles above the moon’s surface at 64,000 miles per hour on August 11.  Now scientists finally understood how a 310-mile-wide ice ball was able to shoot geysers of vapor and icy particles.

Enceladus is one-seventh the diameter of Earth's moon and it has now become one of the places of the Solar System that might support life. During a March flyby it was discovered that the carbon-based molecules that could provide the building blocks for life were present on its surface. Cassini also detected water vapor, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

The analyzed fractures are 1,000 feet deep. “They are the most astounding images of any planetary surface that our cameras have so far taken,” said Carolyn Porco, leader of Cassini’s imaging team. The photos were taken using a special technique called “skeet-shooting.” It succeeds in canceling the high velocity of the moon relative to Cassini and help obtan accurate photos at 40,000 miles per hour.

Cassini focused its cameras mostly on the South Pole region of the moon, a region full of "tiger stripes." It’s over there that geysers of water-ice and vapor come out and supply material to Saturn's E-ring.

Two more Enceladus hovering operations are planned for October.