Washington: Following a successful close flyby of Saturn's icy, geologically active moon Enceladus on Wednesday, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has begun transmitting its latest images.
During the dramatic flyby of Enceladus, a prime target for future exploration in search of habitable environments beyond our home planet, the probe passed about 49 kilometres above the moon's south polar region.
The south polar region of Saturn's active, icy moon Enceladus awaits NASA's Cassini spacecraft in this view, acquired on approach to the mission's deepest-ever dive through the moon's plume of icy spray.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
"Cassini's stunning images are providing us a quick look at Enceladus from this ultra-close flyby, but some of the most exciting science is yet to come," said Linda Spilker, the mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Following a successful close flyby of Enceladus, NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this artful composition of the icy moon with Saturn's rings beyond.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Researchers will soon begin studying data from Cassini's gas analyser and dust detector instruments, which directly sampled the moon's plume of gas and dust-sized icy particles during the flyby, NASA said.
During its closest ever dive past the active south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus,
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
These analyses, likely to take several weeks, should provide important insights about the composition of the global ocean beneath Enceladus' surface and any hydrothermal activity occurring on the ocean floor.
The potential for such activity in this small ocean world has made Enceladus a prime target for future exploration in search of habitable environments in the solar system beyond Earth, NASA said.
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