Some quick facts about Enceladus, Saturn's moon that's some 790 million miles distant from Earth and may contain the building blocks of life, if not microbial life itself:
- It's Saturn's sixth-largest moon at about 310 miles in diameter — roughly 14% of the size of Earth's moon.
- The moon is covered in a layer of clean ice that makes it the most reflective body in our Solar System, reflecting so much sunlight that its surface only reaches an average noontime temperature of -324 °F.
- It likely has a warm ocean of salty water below its ice layer that's around 17 miles deep. Compare that to Earth's average ocean depth of 2.3 miles.
- The oceanic plumes that indicate Enceladus' geological activity are the source of material for one of Saturn's rings.