Cassini's October 28 'Plume Dive'

Originally shared by Pierre Markuse

Cassini's October 28 'Plume Dive'

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will sample the ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Wednesday, October 28, when it flies through the moon's plume of icy spray. Scientists hope this close flyby will shed light on what's happening beneath the moon's icy surface. The spacecraft has flown closer to the surface of Enceladus before, but never this low directly through the active plume.

Full story here:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4750

Video about the plume dive:
https://youtu.be/BZ1KowQXc3Y

Enceladus

Enceladus has a diameter of 504 kilometers (313 miles) and is orbiting Saturn every 1.4 Earth days at a distance of 238,037 km (147,909 miles). It was discovered August 28, 1789 by William Herschel. More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus

More on Cassini:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens

Image credit: PIA20013: This artist's rendering showing a cutaway view into the interior of Saturn's moon Enceladus.  NASA/JPL-Caltech http://goo.gl/y3hhjP

#science   #cassini   #enceladus   #plumedive   #space   #spaceexploration   #solarsystem   #saturn