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Satnews Daily
October 30th, 2008

Cassini To Take Another Peek At Enceladus


Just over three weeks after the previous fly-by of Enceladus, Cassini will again fly by this Saturnian moon, passing at an altitude of 197 kilometres. Cassini will approach Enceladus on a fast, inclined trajectory over the northern hemisphere and will depart over the southern hemisphere. The closest approach occurs on October 31st at 17:14:51 UT over latitude 28° S and longitude 97° W. The Optical Remote Sensing (ORS) instruments are at the focus of the science operations during this fly-by. The Imaging Science Subsystem camera will execute a sophisticated series of images starting just 2 minutes after closest-approach, obtaining images of the south polar "tiger stripes" at resolutions as high as 8.4 m/pixel. Enceladus will be in eclipse (in Saturn's shadow) for about 2.5 hours, starting about 50 minutes after closest-approach. This encounter will occur 3 days prior to the T46 Titan fly-by (of 3 November), on the inbound leg of Cassini's orbit number 91. (Image, courtesy of NASA, reveals the "almost human" features of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.)

NASA's Casinni spacecraft features