Cassini sent photos of Enceladus in high resolution

On the surface of Enceladus is clearly visible "snowman"

All sorts of photographs sent by spacecraft to Earth - many tens of thousands. All of them carry a certain scientific value, and give a person additional portions of knowledge about the structure of the cosmos, our solar system. Some pictures are also beautiful, so we can assume that the artistic value of such photos is also great, especially since the images are unique.

Space station Cassini sent a new batch of photos, this time - the cold moon of Saturn, Enceladus. The photographs show the regions that people have opened just now. Photos, according to experts, clarify the history of the poles of Enceladus. By the way, soon the next pictures of this space body should arrive on Earth, since Cassini takes a new portion of photographs from a distance of only about 50 kilometers from the surface of Saturn’s satellite (this will happen on October 28). Those photos that are posted in the sequel were taken from a distance of almost 2 thousand kilometers.

Despite the fact that Cassini has been studying this region for many years, the polar regions of Enceladus were inaccessible for observation - for several reasons. Now, the sun illuminated the northern hemisphere of the planetoid, so the photos were very clear. The photographs show a region filled with thin cracks and craters.

Since 2005, it has been known that there are cryovolcanoes on Enceladus that regularly erupt, and which will also be soon studied by Cassini. The device must fly through the emissions of matter by a cryovolcano to study the composition of such an emission. There is now no doubt that under the ice crust of Enceladus there is an ocean of liquid water. It is possible that the bed of the ocean is geologically active, and the water in some places is heated. Enceladus is one of the candidates for the role of a carrier of extraterrestrial life, and the probability of this is quite high.

Studying the emissions of cryovolcanoes will allow scientists to understand the approximate composition of ocean water. This, in turn, will make it possible to understand whether there is a probability of life under the ice crust of Enceladus.

The last time Cassini flies near Enceladus on December 19, however, then the distance from the station to the satellite of Saturn will be more than 5 thousand kilometers.













Earlier, NASA uploaded new images of satellites of Saturn, Mimas and Pandora. Despite the fact that both satellites revolve around the same planet, they are very different. Pandora, which is considered a small moon, since its diameter is only 81 kilometers, has an irregular elongated shape. Mimas, with a diameter of 396 kilometers, is already considered a satellite of medium size. Its shape is correct, thanks to a larger mass than Pandora.

The shape of these bodies helps to understand the history and development of satellites. For example, the explanation for the elongated form of Pandora may be the low density of the substance that makes up the planetoid. Perhaps Pandora was formed from the particles of the ring of Saturn, joined together for one reason or another.