Last Enceladus plume observation

This movie sequence of images is from the last dedicated observation of the Enceladus plume by Cassini.

The images were obtained over approximately 14 hours as Cassini's cameras stared at the active, icy moon. The view during the entire sequence is of the moon's night side, but Cassini's perspective of Enceladus shifts during the sequence. The movie begins with a view of the part of the surface lit by reflected light from Saturn and transitions to completely unilluminated terrain. The exposure time of the images changes about halfway through the sequence, in order to make fainter details visible. (The change also makes background stars become visible.)

The images in this movie sequence were taken on 28 August 2017, using Cassini's narrow-angle camera. The images were acquired at a distance from Enceladus that changed from 1.1 million to 868,000 km. Image scale changes during the sequence, from 7 to 5 km/pixel.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency.