New Delhi:
US space agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, has shared striking image of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which were captured by the Cassini spacecraft before dropping into the planet and accepting its death on September 15.
Cassini’s Saturn trip is considered to be the most successful missions.
Cassini managed to capture some really astonishing image of the planet’s Rings and the moon.
The picture that NASA has shared shows the planet’s moon, Enceladus, with the sun dropping light on it and forming a crescent limb. Enceladus drifts before the rings of Saturn, which glow brightly in the sunlight.
Enceladus’ ice exterior shells covers the interior global ocean of liquid water. The bright spot to the right of the moon is a distant star.
The narrow-angled camera which was aboard the Cassini spacecraft captured the image. The spacecraft was 90,000 miles (1,45,000 kilometers) from the moon while shooting the picture, revealed the scientists.
Cassini revealed that Enceladus had all the evidences required for life and made the way for a future follow-up missions which have a chance of unravelling the mysteries of the moon.
Scientists believed that if Cassini did not dive into the Rings of Saturn, then it would have collided with Enceladus and releasing the Earth’s microbes, which would pollute the surface of the moon.
The Cassini Mission is a cooperative project of MASA, the European Science Agency (EAS) and the Italian Space Agency.
The Cassini orbiter and the two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembles at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
