LONDON: The closest views yet of Saturn’s moon Enceladus reveal craters and fractures across its snowy-white surface.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sent back the first images from its October 14 flyby ranging from 1,140 to 6,000 feet above its surface, according to a release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). NASA released three processed images and more raw images on Thursday.
Cassini captured Enceladus’ fractured and heavily cratered north pole. So many craters cover the moon they overlap each other and wrap its icy surface. Long thin networks of cracks run through craters. The cracks on the north pole were a surprise to scientists because they were not sure the fractures went so far north, according to the imaging team.
“The northern regions are crisscrossed by a spidery network of gossamer-thin cracks that slice through the craters,” said Paul Helfenstein of Cassini’s imaging team. “These thin cracks are ubiquitous on Enceladus, and now we see that they extend across the northern terrains as well.”
In September Cassini’s imaging team confirmed a global ocean deep beneath Enceladus’ ice crust. Scientists hope later flyby images from Cassini will provide more information about the ocean’s activity.
These pictures are the closest yet of Enceladus, but the best are still to come. Cassini will zoom through the moon’s southern pole — where misting fissures have been spotted—on October 28 at an altitude of 30 miles sampling the moon’s ice geysers.
Cassini’s final encounter with Enceladus will happen in December, before it takes off to image more of Saturn’s moons.
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