Cassini spacecraft revisits icy Saturn moon

Space.Com
Posted: August 12th, 2008 by Thomas L. Knapp

“NASA’s Cassini spacecraft circling the planet Saturn took a new look at one of the ringed world’s icy moons and its geyser-like plumes on Monday. The probe zoomed past Saturn’s moon Enceladus with its camera eyes wide open to photograph the jets of frozen water vapor that gush from fissures along the satellite’s south pole. … The 39,540 mph (63,633 kph) flyby marked Cassini’s fifth swing past Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn about 310 miles (500 km) wide that has tantalized scientists with geyser-like eruptions of icy water vapor that were first spotted in 2005. The spacecraft last visited Enceladus earlier this year in March, when it skirted through the fringe of the plumes and found signs of organic chemicals similar to those seen in comets.” (08/11/08)

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