This artist concept shows the detection of a dynamic atmosphere on
Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. The Cassini magnetometer instrument is
designed to measure the magnitude and direction of the magnetic fields of
Saturn and its moons. During Cassini's three close flybys of Enceladus --
Feb. 17, March 9 and July 14, 2005--the instrument detected a bending of
the magnetic field around Enceladus due to electric currents generated by
the interaction of atmospheric particles and the magnetosphere of Saturn.
The graphic shows the magnetic field observed by Cassini, as well as the
predicted neutral cloud being vented from the south pole. Cassini's
magnetometer observed bending of the magnetic field consistent with its
draping around a conducting object. That indicates that the Saturnian
plasma is being diverted away from an extended atmosphere.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European
Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The
Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The
magnetometer team is based at Imperial College in London, working with
team members from the United States and several European countries.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The magnetometer team homepage is
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research/spat/research/cassini/.
