Newsademic British English edition 260

party had less than 40 seats. It was 
in third place behind the Conserva­
tives and the New Democrats. At the 
recent election the Liberal Party got 
184 seats. This was 148 more than 
at the election held four years ago. 
The Conservative Party came sec­
ond. Yet it only won 99 seats, or 60 
less than last time. After the results 
became known, M r Harper declared 
that he would stand down as the 
leader o f the Conservative Party. 
The Liberal Party’s gain o f 148 
seats was the biggest ever increase 
in a Canadian election.
After learning that he would 
be Canada’s prime minister, M r 
Trudeau made several announce­
ments. He said that his government 
would take in more Syrian refugees. 
He also declared that Canadian war­
planes would be withdrawn from the 
Middle East. There, the warplanes’ 
pilots have been working with air­
craft from other countries such as 
the USA and France. The planes 
have been attacking a militant group 
called the Islamic State (also known 
as ISIS and ISIL).
M r Trudeau also telephoned B a­
rack Obama, the president of the 
USA. M r Obama congratulated 
him on winning the election. The 
president joked that, like him, M r 
Trudeau’s hair would now soon be­
gin to go grey. As Canada’s prime 
minister, M r Trudeau will move into 
24 Sussex Drive. It will bring back 
memories, as this is the house where 
he spent his childhood. □

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29th October 2015 
N e w s a d e m ic .co m ™
 - British English edition 
page 
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a s s in i
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s
 
E
n c e l a d u s
 
flyb y
On 28th October the Cassini un­
manned spacecraft, or space probe, 
completed an unusual flyby. It 
flew about 50 kilometres (31 
miles) above the surface o f Encela­
dus. This is one o f Saturn’s many 
moons. As it flew over the m oon’s 
surface, Cassini deliberately passed 
through one o f Enceladus’ icy jets. 
These jets, or plumes, erupt from 
the m oon’s surface.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the 
Sun. It is named after the Roman god 
o f farming, or agriculture. The plan­
et is the Solar System’s second larg­
est. The biggest is Jupiter. Saturn is 
famous for its rings. (It is sometimes 
called the ringed planet.) Saturn’s 
rings are no more than 20 metres 
(66 feet) thick. Yet they are about 
113,000 kilometres (70,200 miles) 
wide. The rings are made up o f bil­
lions o f small pieces o f ice and dust.
E nceladus and its p lum es o f ic y sp ra y (NASA)
It takes Saturn about 30 ‘Earth 
years’ to orbit the Sun. The planet 
has at least 150 moons, or natural sat­
ellites. M ost are very small. About 
50 o f the larger moons have been 
named. The largest is Titan. Encela- 
dus is roughly 500 kilometres (310 
miles) across. It is Saturn’s sixth- 
biggest moon. Enceladus is named 
after a giant from Greek Mythology.
Cassini was launched in 1997. It 
is a joint project between the USA’s
space agency (NASA) and the Euro­
pean Space Agency (ESA). Cassini 
finally reached Saturn in 2004. It 
has been circling the ringed planet 
for over ten years. During this time, 
Cassini has recorded large amounts 
o f information about Saturn and its 
rings. It has also flown past several 
o f Saturn’s moons. In 2005 Cassini 
discovered that Enceladus had gey­
ser-like jets o f water vapour erupt­
ing from part o f its surface.
A rtis t’s im pression o f C assini and S a tu rn ’s rings
The jets were a surprise. Ence- 
ladus was thought to be a large 
ball o f ice that was ‘geologically 
dead’. Planets and moons are of­
ten described as being geologi­
cally active or dead. The Earth is 
geologically active, but the Moon 
is geologically dead. The Earth’s 
outer layer, or crust, is made up of 
huge pieces called tectonic plates. 
These ‘plates’ move very slowly. 
It is these plate movements that 
cause earthquakes and volcanoes. 
The Moon does not have any mov­
ing plates. The water vapour jets 
on Enceladus show that the moon 
is geologically active.
Later, it was discovered that the 
m oon’s icy plumes were erupting 
from four long fractures. NASA 
scientists nicknamed them ‘tiger 
stripes’. The fractures are near En- 
celadus’ south pole. The jets are 
now thought to run the length o f the 
tiger stripes. If so, they are hundreds 
o f kilometres long. If you were
standing on Enceladus, they would 
look like a long wall o f water va­
pour many kilometres high. These 
types o f long plumes are known as 
curtain eruptions.
NASA scientists believe that the 
water vapour comes from a salty 
ocean under Enceladus’ icy surface. 
The m oon’s hot core is probably 
heating this ocean. Cassini will test 
the water vapour it detected during 
its latest flyby. If it finds hydrogen 
molecules, there could be hot vents 
on Enceladus’ ocean floor. These 
would probably be similar to the 
ocean vents deep below the Earth’s 
oceans. These are also called ‘black 
smokers’. On Earth, bacteria live 
around these hot vents. If Enceladus 
has black smokers, they could be 
home to tiny microbes.
Many scientists think that Ence- 
ladus might be the only other planet 
or moon in the Solar System that has 
any life. □
S