NASA spots two moons of Saturn aligned perfectly

To date, mission scientists are closely monitoring Enceladus since past data from Cassini suggest that the moon could possibly possess a global ocean underneath its icy crust.

Presently, Cassini is all set for its last ever flyby of Enceladus on December 19, an encounter called E-22 (the 22nd flyby), during which it will come within 3,106 miles (4,999 kilometers) of the surface of moon.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from 0.34 degrees below the ring plane and was taken September 24 in red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera. “It allows us to map a good portion of the intriguing south polar region at good resolution”, said Mike Flasar, CIRS team lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been in Saturn orbit for over a decade and it has seen the whole spectrum of ringed planet delights. This would indicate that the two moons would be just 300,000 miles away from each other. By the time the mission concludes, Cassini will have obtained observations over six years of winter darkness in the moon’s southern hemisphere. The absence of heat from the sun makes it easier for Cassini to observe the warmth from Enceladus itself. Saturn has over 50 named moons and more than 60 satellites in all. Cassini made its closest Enceladus flyby on October 9, 2008, at an altitude of 16 miles (25 kilometers). At the end of the month, the probe completed a risky dive through an erupting plume gushing from the moon’s surface.

The plumes’ source, Enceladus’ subsurface ocean, exhibited chemical signs of water interacting with rocks – an extremely high pH solution, according to University of Toronto geochemist Christopher Glein. It was discovered in 1684 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini.