CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The Cassini spacecraft is about to get an icy shower as it orbits Saturn.
On Wednesday, Cassini will storm through a jet of water vapor and frozen particles erupting from the south pole of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s many moons. The spacecraft will zoom within 30 miles of the pole, providing the best sampling yet of its underground ocean.
Cassini will be traveling 19,000 mph, so it should take just an instant to penetrate the plume.
A global liquid ocean is believed to exist beneath the frozen crust of 300-mile-wide Enceladus. Wednesday’s dive will be the deepest one yet through the continuous plumes, making the enterprise a bit riskier than usual.
Launched in 1997, Cassini is not equipped to detect life, but scientists hope Wednesday’s fly-by will provide clues as to the possibility of it. NASA considers Wednesday’s feat “a very big step in a new era of exploring ocean worlds in our solar system.”
Other probable extraterrestrial ocean worlds: Saturn’s largest moon, Titan; Jupiter’s moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto; and possibly dwarf planets Pluto and Ceres, among others.
