Thursday, October 9, 2008

Cassini at Enceladus

As I'm writing this, NASA's Cassini spacecraft is having a close encounter with Saturn's moon, Enceladus. At its closest approach, Cassini will skim just 16 miles above the moon's icy surface.

Enceladus has become an important focus of the mission. Before Cassini, most astronomers would have said Titan was the best bet as the home of life in the system of Saturn. Life on Titan is still possible, but Enceladus, with a huge ocean of liquid water under its icy surface as well as organic molecules in that ocean, has become another possible abole of life.

Today is the first of two close encounters Cassini will have with Encel;adus this month. The second will be on October 31.

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