Though recognized to exist for pretty much two generations, Enceladus, “one of just three outer solar process bodies (along with Jupiter's moon Io and Neptune's moon Triton) where active eruptions have been observed” stayed merely a speck before the Voyager program. When Voyager I flew by within 202,000 km (125,517 miles) of Enceladus on November 12, 1980, it unveiled “a highly reflective area without influence craters, [indicative of] a vibrant surface.” Voyager II, which flew by within 87,010 km (54,065 miles) of Enceladus on July 26, 1981 exposed a diverse floor – a number of it older and greatly cratered (mid-to-high northern latitude region), the others gently crateredhidden wiki (near the equator) and the rest typically clean and youthful.[4]

The January 17, March 9, and September 14, 2005 flybys of Cassini exposed Enceladus'area in considerably larger detail. “Smooth plains resolved in to somewhat crater-free parts full of numerous little ridges and scarps. …Numerous fractures (possibly brought on by the develop of force from the temperature differential involving the moon's hot subsurface and frigid floor and outdoor environment) were found within the older, cratered terrain… and a few extra small ground were discovered… such as… near the [moon's] South Post …[including] intriguing black areas, 125 and 750 yards (410 and 2461 feet) large, which appear to run similar to slim cracks [and are thought to be] fail pits” filled up with heavy blue ice. Cassini also imaged the moon's easy plains (Sarandib Planitia and Diyar Planitia) ultimately causing the calculate this terrain is between 170 million to 3.7 billion years old, in addition to the outer lining place experiencing Saturn, that has been discovered to be “covered in numerous criss-crossing sets of troughs and ridges,” and the geologically active South Pole, which unveiled the presence of an energetic geyser whose gushing water increases Saturn's e-ring, and a “exclusive tectonically-deformed place [estimated to be between 10 to 100 million years old that reaches] as much north as 60° south latitude… included in tectonic fractures and ridges [including four such breaks bounded on each side by ridges called ‘tiger stripes'included in snow and even boulders including 10 to 100 meters (33 to 328 feet) large, which be seemingly significantly less than 1000 decades old].”[5]

The finding of the cryovolcanism (“eruption of water and/or different fluid or vapor-phase volatiles, together with gas-driven stable fragments onto the top of a planet or moon because of central heating”)[6] at Enceladus'South Rod, in which a geyser gushes water and different volatiles rather than silicate steel, alongside the current presence of an inconstant environment (thickest around the South Pole) that consists mostly of water steam (H2O)(91%) along side smaller amounts of molecular nitrogen (N) (4%), carbon dioxide (CO2)(3.2%) and methane (CH4) (1.7%) provides the greatest hope for the living of living somewhere on or underneath the moon's surface despite a mean surface heat of about -325° Fahrenheit.