Final Chapters of Cassini

Enceladus - Cassini image

The Cassini Mission began its adventure to Saturn in October 1997, and didn't begin to exploring the secrets of Saturn until orbital insertion in July 2005. It has been orbiting the gas giant for just over 10 years now, allowing scientists around the world to uncover the mysteries of Saturn and its Moons. 

Sadly the mission is beginning to come to an end, and is expected that by 2017 the beloved spacecraft will be on its way to crash landing into the abyss of Saturn. With the mission beginning to decent closer to the planet, sadly the Moons are being passed for the last time one by one. Today its Enceladus's turn to wave goodbye. 

Enceladus is small but mighty. Measuring only 500km across, the small Moon of Saturn could be hiding life beyond Earth under its icy crust. In only 2006 Cassini made the groundbreaking discovery that Enceladus's south pole was home to strong active jets. The jets are created from pressure under the crust, coursed by a vast global ocean under its crust. 

So, are there little alien's swimming under the surface of Enceladus? Maybe, however with Cassini moving on from Enceladus, no spacecraft will be able to answer this for many years to come.