Flyby of Saturn tagged posts

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft paused during its final close flyby of Enceladus to focus on the icy moon’s craggy, dimly lit limb, with the planet Saturn beyond. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Cassini passed Enceladus at a distance of 3,106 miles on Dec. 19, at 9:49 a.m. PST. “This final Enceladus flyby elicits feelings of both sadness and triumph,” said Earl Maize, JPL. “While we’re sad to have the close flybys behind us, we’ve placed the capstone on an incredible decade of investigating one of the most intriguing bodies in the solar system.”

Cassini will continue to monitor activity on Enceladus from a distance, through the end of its mission in Sept. 2017. Future encounters will be much farther away – at closest, >4X farther than this latest encounter...