Cassini To Fly Thru Saturn's Moon Debris

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will sample the ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Wednesday, Oct. 28, when it flies through the moon's plume of icy spray. Cassini launched in 1997 and entered orbit around Saturn in 2004. Since then, it has been studying the huge planet, its rings and its magnetic field.

Enceladus is an icy moon of Saturn. Early in its mission, Cassini discovered Enceladus has remarkable geologic activity, including a towering plume of ice, water vapor and organic molecules spraying from its south polar region. Cassini later determined the moon has a global ocean and likely hydrothermal activity, meaning it could have the ingredients needed to support simple life. The flyby is not intended to detect life, but it will provide powerful new insights about how habitable the ocean environment is within Enceladus.

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http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/seven-key-facts-about-cassinis-oct-28-plume-dive/