Pristine grains ejected from Enceladus only minutes before impacted Cassini's Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) instrument at about 18 km/s.
In 2005, Cassini found the first evidence that Enceladus has a hidden ocean beneath its icy surface.
Lead author Nozair Khawaja noted that Cassini sampled from Enceladus as it flew through Saturn’s E ring, discovering many organic molecules, including amino acid precursors.
In 2005, the Cassini spacecraft found evidence of a hidden ocean beneath Enceladus’s icy surface.
Nicolas Altobelli, ESA Cassini project scientist, indicated that new discoveries from Cassini data continue to emerge nearly two decades after its collection.
These fresh ice grains detected by Cassini were the fastest it had ever encountered.
Cassini flew through fresh icy spray from Enceladus in 2008, detecting pristine grains ejected shortly before at speeds of about 18 km/s.
Co-author Frank Postberg stated that the discovered molecules prove that Cassini's previous organic detections in the E ring are not solely due to space exposure.
The upcoming mission will use information from Cassini's Cosmic Dust Analyzer to select modern scientific instruments.
Cassini detected jets of water erupting from cracks near Enceladus’s south pole, which shoot ice grains into space.
Researchers calculated the density and velocity of Enceladus's cryovolcanic plumes using data gathered by Cassini.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected water-bearing minerals at most lunar latitudes during its flyby of the Moon in 1999.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft flew by the Moon in 1999 en route to Saturn and its infrared spectrometer detected water-bearing minerals at most lunar latitudes with higher concentrations toward the poles.
The Cassini team did not publish its Moon water-bearing mineral findings until about a decade later, after India’s Chandrayaan-1 discovered water on the Moon.
Qualinx’s relationship with EUSPA developed via the European Commission’s CASSINI initiative to support space-related deep-tech startups.
Cassini is intended to provide European support to prevent startups from seeking funding outside the European Union, particularly in the United States.
The Cassini initiative seeks to combine several EU funding sources to provide up to 1,000,000,000 EUR for space startups.