Patches of color on Saturn's Moons, page 1

Some of Saturn's inner most moons have color patches on them. What are they? Could they even be life? We seem to keep making some amazing and unexpected discoveries recently... Let's hope the trend continues.

source www.space.com...

New maps reveal colorful patterns on the surfaces of Saturn's five innermost icy moons.

Some of the patterns have been seen before, but others took scientists by surprise, suggesting dynamic interactions between the moons and other particles orbiting around Saturn.

And this part caught my attention

This reddening is strongest at the centers of the trailing face (like the center of a bulls-eye). The leading faces of the moons also appear to be redder in their centers, though the redness is weaker than for the trailing hemisphere.

Seeing this pattern on both hemispheres is difficult to explain because most processes that would color the surface in this way would only affect one hemisphere or the other.

The article doesn't even come close to mentioning life, but it doesn't give any other serious explination either. They only suggest that it could be from particles in the rings hitting the surface. As the quote from above points out this can't be the reason, and even if it was why would the rings cause color when we don't see color anywhere else? Most pictures of the rings I've seen are in black and white so correct me if I'm wrong about that last part.

[edit on 20-10-2009 by fieryjaguarpaw]