SPACE — Scientists may have finally solved the mystery of the 'tiger stripes' on Saturn's moon Enceladus.<br /><br />According to a study published in Nature Astronomy, the Cassini probe first detected the four strange fractures on the moon's north pole when the spacecraft orbited around Saturn 15 years ago.<br /><br />According to the researchers, the 'tiger stripes' are about 130 kilometers long, with fracture lines running parallel to one another, spaced at 35 kilometers apart.<br /><br />Lead author Doug Hemingway at the Carnegie Institute for Science says that the fissures constantly blow out water and ice, unlike any other formation known to exist on icy moons.<br /><br />According to the research team, the tiger stripes and the formation's strange behavior is caused by the moon's 'eccentric' orbit around Saturn.<br /><br />Because Enceladus' distance to Saturn fluctuates, planetary gravity stretches and flexes the moon. This effect generates the heat that keeps Enceladus from freezing solid.<br /><br />The gravitational force is so powerful that it changes the shape of the moon, with the resulting stress creating the first tiger stripe on Enceladus.<br /><br />As the moon's surface ocean erupts through the fissure, the jets of water then freeze and fall back on the moon." <br /><br />The weight of the accumulated ice and snow puts pressure on the nearby ice sheet and breaks the crust on parallel lines. Those fractures become the moon's stripes.
