14 DAY TRIAL // This coming Monday, August 17, NASA's Cassini probe will fly by Saturn's moon Dione. The spacecraft, launched in 1997 and orbiting Saturn since 2004, is expected to come within 295 miles (474 kilometers) of Dione's surface when it makes its closest approach at 11:33 a.m. PDT (2:33 p.m. EDT), mission scientists say.
The Dione flyby scheduled for next Monday will be the spacecraft's fifth tour of the moon and also its last. Having completed this quest, Cassini will move away from Saturn's equatorial plane, its home for the better part of its mission, and position itself to slalom through the space between Saturn and the rings encircling it.
Scientists hope Cassini will find proof of geologic activity
As noted, the Cassini spacecraft has until now completed a total of four flybys of Saturn's moon Dione. The flybys allowed it to map its surface in unprecedented detail and zoom in on geological features such as canyons.
“Those previous close Cassini flybys yielded high-resolution views of the bright, wispy terrain on Dione first seen during the Voyager mission. Cassini's sharp views revealed the bright features to be a system of braided canyons with bright walls,” NASA explains.
Back in December 2011, the probe imaged landscapes on Dione from as close as 60 miles (100 miles). Even so, there is one long-standing mystery this NASA mission is yet to solve: whether or not Dione is geologically active.
True, the Cassini spacecraft has found some evidence that this icy moon of Saturn is not completely dormant, but definite proof that geological processes are indeed shaping its internal structure and its surface in this day and age is yet to be found.
NASA scientists hope that, during Monday's flyby, Cassini will get lucky and settle this riddle once and for all. Then again, even if this doesn't happen, the mission will still help further our understanding of the orb and its history.
“This will be our last chance to see Dione up close for many years to come,” says NASA researcher Scott Edgington, Cassini mission deputy project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
It'll be a few days before new views of Dione reach us
Although NASA's Cassini probe will complete its flyby of Dione this coming Monday, it won't be until towards the end of next week that we'll get to have a look at the images the spacecraft will obtain while hovering over the moon's surface.
Thus, mission scientists say the first of these new views of Saturn's moon Dione will reach our planet a couple of days after the encounter. Guess we'll just have to conjure up all our patience and wait then.
