Moon · orbits Saturn
Enceladus
Sixty Geysers
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.