Cassini is trying learn life possiblity in Saturn’s moon Enceladus

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has begun transmitting data and images from the mission’s final close flyby of Saturn’s active moon Enceladus. Although the spacecraft usually keeps its distance from the moon, floating a few million miles away from it and making observations from there, it has approached it a few times.

Cassini, which entered orbit around Saturn in 2004, will make the flyby at a distance of about 3,106 miles, or 4,999 kilometers, on December 19 at about 9:49 am, as per the U.S. space agency.

The mission will continue in 2017, but Cassini will then stay at an even bigger distance than it has now, as scientists believe a more general overview of the moon is needed. Cassini’s mission will continue through September 2017.

The Saturday flyby’s main focus will be to measure the heat coming through the moon’s ice.

The icy moon has been observed releasing plumes of vapor and ice containing organics, presumably from its concealed ocean, which itself is in contact with rock in a manner similar to the conditions that probably launched life on Earth.

“Understanding how much warmth Enceladus has in its heart provides insight into its remarkable geologic activity, and that makes this last close flyby a fantastic scientific opportunity”, Linda Spilker of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. Mike Flasar, CIRS team lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, said the Cassini’s coming flyby will allows us to map a good portion of the intriguing South Polar Region at good resolution. As a young Star Trek fan he participated in the letter-writing campaign which resulted in the space shuttle prototype being named Enterprise.

The important thing to note is that the Saturday’s flyby will not be the closest for Cassini as it will maintain certain distance to allow the Composite Infrared Spectrometer instrument on board to observe heat flow across Enceladus’ south polar terrain.

Today’s mission will not be the first time that Cassini approached Enceladus so closely.

Enceladus is one of Saturn’s moons and has been “visited” by Cassini several times already.

After revealing Enceladus’ surprising geologic activity in 2005, Cassini made a series of discoveries about the material gushing from warm fractures near its south pole.

“Cassini’s legacy of discoveries in the Saturn system is profound”, said Spilker.

Enceladus is the sixth largest moon in the Saturn system, measuring about 310 miles in diameter, which is just a tenth of the size of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. The flyby on Saturday marked Cassini’s 22 pass of the moon.