NASA reveals key facts about Cassini’s close flyby of Enceladus

“Cassini was never created to look for life, but it does have powerful instruments that can be used to look for habitability”, she said.

A Nasa space probe is about to search for sings of life on Enceladus – a tiny, ice-covered moon next to Saturn.

Following the release of Enceladus’ first close-up photos, NASA goes beyond the moon’s icy spray in hopes to get evidence of hydrothermal activity in Enceladus’ global ocean.

“This incredible plunge through the Enceladus plume is an unbelievable opportunity for NASA and its global partners on the Cassini mission to ask, ‘Can any icy ocean world host the ingredients for life?'” explained Cassini program scientist Dr. Curt Niebur.

Just two days from now, on Wednesday, October 28, the second flyby is taking place, with the spacecraft flying over the moon’s south pole, not simply for a matter of comparison, but also to perform a feat of orbital derring-do in the name of science!

And then scientists should be able to definitely know these things once the ion and neutral mass spectrometer instrument (INMS) aboard the spacecraft is able to detect the molecular hydrogen within the plume coming out from Enceladus – according to NASA.

In December, Cassini will fly to an altitude of 4,999 kilometres to measure the heat flowing from the moon’s interior. This plume is a mixture of water vapors, volatile chemicals and ice grains which are being shot out at 1,360 miles per hour from icy geysers.

These are volcanic fissures on the ocean floor where sea water percolating through fractures in the bedrock is heated to high temperatures.

The complex chemistry around hydrothermal vents gives rise to oases of teeming life in a few of the deepest, coldest and darkest corners of the world’s oceans.

The team also hopes to characterize the plume’s chemistry (perhaps finding previously undetected organic compounds) and determine the nature of the plume sources (discrete jets versus broader, curtainlike eruptions).

The low altitude of the encounter is meant to increase the spacecraft’s access to heavier, more massive molecules, including organics.

Cassini is the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, and it has been circling the planet since 2004.

Researchers are not sure how much icy material the plumes are actually spraying into space.

The four 1.2-mile wide aligned cracks are believed to be sites of heightened volcanic activity on Enceladus.

Dr Sascha Kempf, one of the scientists leading the team that will examine the data at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said, “There’s really no room for ambiguity”.