{"id":16258,"date":"2015-06-18T18:02:06","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T10:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/saturn-moons-ice-canyons-viewed-by-cassini\/"},"modified":"2015-06-18T18:02:06","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T10:02:06","slug":"saturn-moons-ice-canyons-viewed-by-cassini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/saturn-moons-ice-canyons-viewed-by-cassini\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturn moon\u2019s ice canyons viewed by Cassini"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"IMG005200-br500\"
Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SSI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saturn\u2019s moon Dione received a fleeting visitor this week, when NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft whizzed by to image bizarre streaks thought to be canyons with ice walls up to 100 stories tall.<\/p>\n

The raw images from Cassini\u2019s encounter are flowing back to Earth, and they reveal wispy bands of bright material stretching hundreds of miles across Dione. Scientists believe the strip-like features are fissures created by subsidence of Dione\u2019s surface, with ice-encrusted walls rising hundreds of meters from the canyon floors.<\/p>\n

Cassini\u2019s closest approach 321 miles (516 kilometers) from Dione occurred Tuesday at a relative speed of 16,330 mph (7.3 kilometers per second). Wednesday\u2019s flyby was Cassini\u2019s second-to-last swing by Dione, which is as wide across as France.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:
Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SSI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scientists hoped to detect fine particles which may be lofted into space from Dione\u2019s surface. A positive detection would indicate Dione sustains low-level geologic activity, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

Other goals of Tuesday\u2019s flyby included measurements of Dione\u2019s gravitational field and observations of the moon\u2019s night side to study how the body loses surface heat.<\/p>\n

A fifth and final flyby of Dione in August will be Cassini\u2019s final close-up visit to Dione. The mission is making its last flybys of Saturn\u2019s icy moons this year as it heads toward a planned destructive plunge into the giant planet\u2019s atmosphere in September 2017.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:
Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SSI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cassini made its last flyby of the sponge-like moon Hyperion on May 31, and the orbiter\u2019s last three encounters with the icy moon Enceladus are due before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The probe, which arrived at Saturn in 2004, is running low on fuel. Ground controllers will guide Cassini into a new orbit inside Saturn\u2019s rings for the mission\u2019s last hurrah.<\/p>\n

Cassini\u2019s final visit to Titan, Saturn\u2019s largest moon, is scheduled for late 2016.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SSI Saturn\u2019s moon Dione received a fleeting visitor this week, when NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft whizzed by to image bizarre streaks thought to be canyons with ice walls up to 100 stories tall. The raw images from Cassini\u2019s encounter are flowing back to Earth, and they reveal wispy bands of bright material stretching hundreds of […]<\/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":[2394,3563,1562],"class_list":["post-16258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cassini","tag-dione","tag-saturn"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16258"}],"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=16258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}