Enceladus

Cassini’s closest flyby just went through the water geysers of Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

Earth just received Cassini’s photographs and they’re a doozy:

You can see the first two are full body pictures of the moon, it’s in a crescent phase because of the angles of Enceladus relative to the moon and Sun and all of that relative to the robot.

The third image was taken as Cassini flew right over the moon’s surface, you can see extraordinary details on the ground of this alien world. It passed a mere 30 miles away from the surface.

Fourth, looking back at you can see a shadowed Enceladus hanging above Saturn’s rings.

This was Cassini’s last extremely close flyby of this ice world. From this mission we now know that an ocean of (likely) salty water sits below the surface of this moon. Perhaps it’s time to start thinking of a sequel mission, maybe a fishing expedition? 

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)

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