![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Z8.jpg\" "\\"Z8\\"")
During Cassini\u2019s early-mission encounters with the moon, the northern terrain of Enceladus was masked by wintry darkness.<\/p>\nOn Wednesday, NASA\u2019s Cassini mission will make the first of three close encounters with Enceladus, the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn. The three close passes, which will be concluded by the end of the year, are set to provide the first opportunity for a close-up look at the north polar region of Enceladus when imagery is beamed back to Earth.<\/p>\n
Understanding Enceladus:<\/p>\n
Enceladus is one of only three outer solar system bodies (along with Jupiter\u2019s moon Io and Neptune\u2019s moon Triton) where active eruptions have been observed.<\/p>\n
It has been reported that analysis of the outgassing suggests that it originates from a body of sub-surface liquid water, which along with the unique chemistry found in the plume, has fueled speculations that Enceladus may be the most habitable spot beyond Earth in the Solar System for life.<\/p>\n
Most of the data and photography from visiting spacecraft has been acquired by the Voyager 2 and Cassini spacecrafts.<\/p>\n
During Cassini\u2019s early-mission encounters with the moon, the northern terrain of Enceladus was masked by wintry darkness.<\/p>\n
Now that the summer sun is shining on the high northern latitudes, scientists will be looking for signs of ancient geological activity similar to the geyser-spouting, tiger-stripe fractures in the moon\u2019s south polar region.<\/p>\n
Features observed during the flyby could help them understand whether the north also was geologically active at some time in the past.<\/p>\n
*Click here for the Cassini 10 year anniversary overview article*<\/p>\n
Spaceflight news subscription (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been following a trail of clues on Enceladus for 10 years now,\u201d noted Bonnie Buratti, a Cassini science team member and icy moons expert at NASA JPL. \u201cThe amount of activity on and beneath this moon\u2019s surface has been a huge surprise to us. We\u2019re still trying to figure out what its history has been, and how it came to be this way.\u201d<\/p>\n Mission scientists announced evidence in March that hydrothermal activity may be occurring on the seafloor of the moon\u2019s underground ocean. In September, they broke the news that its ocean \u2013 previously thought to be only a regional sea \u2013 was, in fact, global.<\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s flyby is considered a moderately close approach for Cassini, which will pass at an altitude of 1,142 miles (1,839 kilometers) above the moon\u2019s surface. Closest approach to Enceladus will occur at 6:41 a.m. EDT (3:41 a.m. PDT). The spacecraft\u2019s final two approaches will take place in late October and mid-December.<\/p>\n Images are expected to begin arriving one to two days after each of the flybys.<\/p>\n During this encounter, Cassini will make its deepest-ever dive through the moon\u2019s plume of icy spray, collecting images and valuable data about what\u2019s going on beneath the frozen surface.<\/p>\n Cassini scientists are hopeful data from that flyby will provide evidence of how much hydrothermal activity is occurring in the moon\u2019s ocean, and how the amount of activity impacts the habitability of Enceladus\u2019 ocean.<\/p>\n \u201cThe global nature of Enceladus\u2019 ocean and the inference that hydrothermal systems might exist at the ocean\u2019s base strengthen the case that this small moon of Saturn may have environments similar to those at the bottom of our own ocean,\u201d added Jonathan Lunine, an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini mission at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is therefore very tempting to imagine that life could exist in such a habitable realm, a billion miles from our home.\u201d<\/p>\n The overview claimed the monster rocket could provide an opportunity to utilize its superior performance to race a large spacecraft to Enceladus on an ambitious sample capture mission.<\/p>\n SLS managers have continued working with JPL on potentially providing the ride for a proposed Europa mission, but a mission to Enceladus \u2013 along with a Mars Sample Return mission \u2013 have also gained documented references.<\/p>\n \u201cAt Enceladus, a small active moon of Saturn, the SLS could carry the fuel needed to slow down for sample capture from the plumes on Enceladus, or create an artificial plume on either Europa or Enceladus by firing a copper projectile at the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n Such a mission was only provided an example, with the SLS team attempting to promote SLS capability, as opposed to announcing a mission planning phase.<\/p>\n Cassini\u2019s final close flyby on Dec. 19 will examine how much heat is coming from the moon\u2019s interior from an altitude of 3,106 miles (4,999 kilometers).<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll continue observing Enceladus and its remarkable activity for the remainder of our precious time at Saturn,\u201d added Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL.<\/p>\n \u201cBut these three encounters will be our last chance to see this fascinating world up close for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n (Images via NASA and L2 artist Nathan Koga \u2013 The full hi-res gallery of Nathan\u2019s (SpaceX Dragon to MCT, SLS, Commercial Crew and more) L2 images can be *found here*)<\/p>\n (To join L2, click here: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Wednesday, NASA\u2019s Cassini mission will make the first of three close encounters with Enceladus, the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn. The three close passes, which will be concluded by the end of the year, are set to provide the first opportunity for a close-up look at the north polar region of Enceladus when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30119,"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],"class_list":["post-39221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cassini"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39221"}],"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=39221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}See Also<\/h4>\n
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![\"2015-10-13-230135\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015-10-13-230135-350x263.jpg\")
The Oct. 14 encounter will serve as a prelude to the main event, a flyby of Enceladus on Wednesday, Oct. 28, during which Cassini will come dizzyingly close to the icy moon, passing a mere 30 miles (49 kilometers) above the moon\u2019s south polar region.<\/p>\n![\"Z23\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Z231.jpg\")
Major interest throughout the Agency was evident when the moon even gained a mention in Space Launch System (SLS) documentation.<\/p>\n![\"2015-09-24-222647\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-24-222647-350x244.jpg\")
\u201cThe SLS could potentially enable sample return from Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa because it would have the payload capacity to provide shielding for a lander on the surface, and sufficient fuel for propulsive maneuvers out of the gravitational well of Jupiter,\u201d noted the Con Ops (Concept of Operations) presentation.<\/p>\n![\"2015-10-13-230218\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015-10-13-230218-350x238.jpg\")
For the meantime, NASA is already in touching distance of the moon, as Cassini presses on with its own observations.<\/p>\n