Images of Saturn's 'geyser' moon captured

PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 3 (UPI) -- A NASA spacecraft has completed a fly-by of Saturn's "geyser" moon Enceladus, capturing images of the moon's jets of water vapor and ice, the agency said.

The Cassini spacecraft flew about 62 miles above the moon's surface to allow some of Cassini's instruments, including a spectrometer, the chance to "taste" the jets themselves, a release from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said Monday.

At one point during the encounter, Cassini's high-resolution camera captured pictures of the jets emanating from vents in the moon's south polar region.

Scientists say they images and spectrographic data will provide a better understand how the surface coverage of icy particles coming from the vents and plumes changes with terrain type and age.

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