The Cassini spacecraft will say goodbye to the Saturn moon Dione by making one last flyby on Monday.
According to Space.com, Cassini's final flyby of Dione will be conducted to try to find physical signs that the moon is still geologically active.
"Dione has been an enigma, giving hints of active geologic processes, including a transient atmosphere and evidence of ice volcanoes," Bonnie Buratti, a Cassini science team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a press release. "But we've never found the smoking gun. The fifth flyby of Dione will be our last chance."
A collaborative effort of NASA, the European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency, Cassini arrived in the Saturn system in 2004 and is expected to run out of fuel in 2017. Before diving toward Saturn's surface, the spacecraft will make a series of maneuvers to take it through the planet's rings.
For the final flyby of Dione, Cassini will pass by at approximately 295 miles above the
surface around 2:30 p.m. ET.
"This will be our last chance to see Dione up close for many years to come," Scott Edgington, Cassini mission deputy project scientist at JPL, said in the release. "Cassini has provided insights into this icy moon's mysteries, along with a rich data set and a host of new questions for scientists to ponder."
