LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An icy spray on a distant moon has scientists all fired up.
Images snapped by the Cassini spacecraft show one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus (ehn-SEH'-lah-duhs), may have liquid water. Scientists consider that an essential ingredient for life.
Some researchers say the moon should now be on the short list of places in the solar system where non-earthly life could live.
A Cassini imaging scientist at the Space Science Institute in Colorado calls the images "the smoking gun." The high-resolution pictures show erupting icy jets and giant vapor plumes from what appear to be water geysers at the moon's south pole.
A top scientist at NASA's Astrobiology Institute says of the findings in tomorrow's issue of Science, "It's certainly interesting." But he says there's no proof yet that the tiny moon could support life.
The moon is 314 miles across.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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