Cassini Prepares to Swoop by Saturn's Geyser-Spewing Moon 7 Aug
2008 (Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Fractures, or "tiger
stripes," where icy jets erupt on Saturn's moon Enceladus will
be the target of a close flyby by the Cassini spacecraft on
Monday, Aug. 11. Cassini will zoom past the tiny moon a mere 50
kilometers (30 miles) from the surface. Just after closest
approach, all of the spacecraft's cameras -- covering infrared
wavelengths, where temperatures are mapped, as well as visible
light and ultraviolet -- will focus on the fissures running
along the moon's south pole. That is where the jets of icy water
vapor emanate and erupt hundreds of miles into space. Those jets
have fascinated scientists since their discovery in 2005. "Our
main goal is to get the most detailed images and remote sensing
data ever of the geologically active features on Enceladus,"
said Paul Helfenstein, a Cassini imaging team associate at
Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. "From this data we may learn
more about how eruptions,