{"id":15852,"date":"2015-12-15T23:43:35","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T15:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/saturns-moons-align-for-cosmic-photo-opportunity\/"},"modified":"2015-12-15T23:43:35","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T15:43:35","slug":"saturns-moons-align-for-cosmic-photo-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/saturns-moons-align-for-cosmic-photo-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturn\u2019s moons align for cosmic photo opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11433\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11433\" style=\"width: 622px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11433\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PIA18349_modest.jpg\" alt=\"Like a cosmic bull's-eye, Enceladus and Tethys line up almost perfectly for Cassini's cameras. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute\" width=\"622\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PIA18349_modest.jpg 1020w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PIA18349_modest-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PIA18349_modest-768x556.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 622px) 100vw, 622px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11433\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Like a cosmic bull\u2019s-eye, Enceladus and Tethys line up almost perfectly for Cassini\u2019s cameras. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA has released an image of Saturn\u2019s moons Enceladus and Tethys caught in a rare alignment by the Cassini spacecraft, which is heading for its final close encounter with the icy moon Enceladus Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Taken Sept. 24, the image from Cassini shows Enceladus eclipsing Tethys, which were about 300,000 miles (500,000 kilometers) apart at the time of the picture.<\/p>\n<p>Tethys, the larger of the two moons, measures about 660 miles (1,062 kilometers) across, while Enceladus has a diameter of 313 miles (504 kilometers). NASA says the appearance of the moons in the Cassini photo accurately shows their relative sizes as the spacecraft flew more than a million miles away from the&nbsp;pair.<\/p>\n<p>Cassini is on track for its last close flyby of Enceladus on Saturday, when the spacecraft will pass within 5,000 kilometers, or about 3,106 miles, of the icy moon.<\/p>\n<p>The probe\u2019s Composite Infrared Spectrometer, an instrument that seeks out heat signatures, will scan Enceladus\u2019 south polar terrain during Saturday\u2019s encounter. Scientists want to measure the heat flow from the moon\u2019s deep interior, and study how the thermal energy drives geysers erupting from fissures near Enceladus\u2019 south pole.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists count Enceladus \u2014 with a global ocean of liquid water buried underneath an icy crust \u2014 among the most likely places in the solar system that could harbor microbial life.<\/p>\n<p>Cassini\u2019s last visit to Enceladus in October took the spacecraft just 49 kilometers, or 30 miles, above the south pole on a trajectory through plumes of ice and dust lofted by the eruptions. The goal of the flyby was to sample the material and search for organic molecules, the building blocks of life.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers believe hydrothermal vents at the base of Enceladus\u2019 ocean could be an energy source for microbial life.<\/p>\n<p>Cassini is adjusting its orbit around Saturn, moving it away from Enceladus and the gas giant\u2019s other smaller moons. A series of flybys of Titan, Saturn\u2019s largest moon, is on tap next year, then the spacecraft will dive inside Saturn\u2019s rings for the first time for a final science campaign before diving into the planet\u2019s hydrogen-rich atmosphere to end Cassini\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like a cosmic bull\u2019s-eye, Enceladus and Tethys line up almost perfectly for Cassini\u2019s cameras. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute NASA has released an image of Saturn\u2019s moons Enceladus and Tethys caught in a rare alignment by the Cassini spacecraft, which is heading for its final close encounter with the icy moon Enceladus Saturday. Taken Sept. 24, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2394,1559,1561,1562,3853],"class_list":["post-15852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cassini","tag-enceladus","tag-planetary-science","tag-saturn","tag-tethys"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}