Baku. 17 October. REPORT.AZ/ NASA has released never-before-seen up close photos of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, Report informs referring to foreign media.
The spacecraft Cassini obtained the images during its flyby two days ago as it flew 1,142 miles above the ocean-bearing moon's surface.
The images show the north polar region to be heavily pummelled with deep craters and cracks.
“The northern regions are criss-crossed by a spidery network of gossamer-thin cracks that slice through the craters,” said Paul Helfenstein, a member of the Cassini imaging team at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, in a statement.
“These thin cracks are ubiquitous on Enceladus, and now we see that they extend across the northern terrains as well.”
Cassini will perform another fly-by of Enceladus later this month when it will swoop to within just 30 miles of the south pole.