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Moon · orbits Saturn

Enceladus

Sixty Geysers

SaturnTitanEnceladus
Enceladus around Saturn, with Titan. Drawn to be seen, not to scale: the order and the direction are real.

Enceladus: a small bright moon firing water from cracks at its south pole, feeding one of Saturn's rings.

What the song is built on

  • Jets of water erupt from cracks at its south pole
  • Those jets feed one of Saturn's rings
  • An ocean lies beneath its ice, with the chemistry life would need
  • It reflects almost all the light that hits it: the brightest body we know

Established astronomy. The music is an interpretation of it — see the curatorial policy.

SoundCrystalline electronic, glass bells, high shimmering pads, rising spray textures, bright soprano vocal, 96 BPM, luminous and small

Lyrics
[Intro] Small and bright and full of water [Verse 1] Five hundred kilometres wide, no more You could drive around me in a week But at my southern pole the ice is torn Into four long stripes they call the tiger streaks From every crack a fountain rises Water into empty sky Freezing as it goes and falling back And some of it goes on to fly [Chorus] Sixty geysers, all at once A little moon spraying an ocean into space Saturn wears the part that got away My water in his ring, my name upon his face [Verse 2] Underneath, a sea from pole to pole Salt and silica and warmth below Hydrogen came up in Cassini's mouth The kind of chemistry that life could know I reflect near all the light I'm given The brightest body anywhere A snowball with a furnace in it A candle with an ocean to spare [Bridge] Cassini flew right through my plume And tasted what I keep Then ended in Saturn so no piece of it Would ever touch my deep [Final Chorus] Sixty geysers, all at once A little moon spraying an ocean into space Saturn wears the part that got away My water in his ring, my name upon his face [Outro] Small and bright And full of water

Enceladus goes round

Solar System — 2026 Founding Edition — one of 30 songs.