Cassini and Enceladus move in sync as NASA reveals a 'spacecraft's eye' view

Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

New Delhi: Ever since its launch 20 years ago in 1997, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has never failed to deliver what was expected of it.

Cassini's aim of investigating Saturn is truly a fruitful one, owing to all the amazingly informative insights into the evolution and structure of the ringed planet.

Through its adept photography abilities, the spacecraft has also sent back stunning images of Saturn, which have also helped divulge numerous secrets of the planet and its moons.

With just a few days left before the spacecraft performs its death plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, thereby ending 13 years of service, NASA has released a breathtaking motion image of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus.

Cassini has monitored Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across) with a particular interest in the plumes and the geology of the south polar region for many years. Different viewing geometries give scientists different information, and the resulting animation gives us a unique “spacecraft’s eye” view of the flyby.

The relative motions of both Cassini and Enceladus over a 15-minute period create the movement seen in the movie sequence.

According to NASA, the movie is a composite of six images taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on August 1, 2017 using filters that allow infrared, green, and ultraviolet light. The image filter centered on 930 nm (IR) is red in this image, the image filter centered on the green is green, and the image filter centered on 338 nm (UV) is blue.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 112,000 miles (181,000 kilometers) from Enceladus. Image scale is about 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) per pixel.

You can check out the animation here.