Nasa releases photos of Saturn's moon Enceladus

Nasa released photos of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus on 15 October after spacecraft Cassini obtained the images during its flyby the day before. Cassini flew 1,142 miles above the ocean-bearing moon's surface

The images of the northern extremes of the ocean-bearing Enceladus show the north polar region to be heavily cratered with stark contrasts.

"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 released by Nasa.

"These thin cracks are ubiquitous on Enceladus, and now we see that they extend across the northern terrains as well."

Cassini's next encounter with Enceladus is schedule for 28 October.