NASA’s Cassini Probe Gets Up Close With Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

Agency scientists hope that these series of flybys will provide them with valuable data regarding the habitability of the natural satellite.

This morning at 6:41 am Eastern time, NASA’s Cassini orbiter made the first of three final flybys of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s icy moons.

Cassini’s attempts to capture images of Enceladus’ norther terrain during earlier missions were unsuccessful because the region was covered in wintry darkness. According to NASA, the probe will soar close to the moon’s north pole, which was too dark to photograph during earlier flights.

The scientists are optimistic that this close flyby of Cassini in Enceladus might show whether the its northern region was also active geologically in the past.

Cassini completed its four-year primary mission in 2008 and went on to perform dozens more flybys of Titan, Enceladus and Saturn’s other icy moons, celebrating its 10th anniversary of arrival at Saturn in June 2014.

The geysers, along with the presence of a global ocean of water on Enceladus, and evidence of hydrothermal activity – similar to the activity we see on the ocean floor here on Earth – may mean that the Saturn moon is one of the best places in the solar system to search for life beyond our own planet.

Why, since Cassini has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, is it our first chance to see Enceladus’ north polar region up close? In September, NASA said the moon-which had been thought to have only a regional sea-had, in fact, a global ocean. “We’re still trying to figure out what its history has been, and how it came to be this way”.

It will travel through icy spray as it gathers images and data that will give new insights into what is happening beneath its surface. Mission scientists announced evidence in March that hydrothermal activity may be occurring on the seafloor of the moon’s underground ocean.

In its final close flyby on December. 19 Cassini will examine how much heat is coming from the moon’s interior from an altitude of 3,106 miles. The craft plans to head back toward Saturn to end its 20-year mission with a bang (or more likely a sudden implosion) in the giant planet’s atmosphere.

Cassini spacecraft image from 2010 of Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

We’ll continue observing Enceladus and its remarkable activity for the remainder of our precious time at Saturn.