The Cassini spacecraft is about to leap towards the minute moon of Saturn, second-largest planet in the solar system, called Escalades. This close approach will give scientists a rare glance into its secrets. Escalades is cold but it is also a home to a warm ocean, along with this it also bears long cuts just like 'tiger stripes'.

Project manager of Cassini Earl Maize said at a NASA briefing on Monday, "We're going to be screaming over the South Pole at around 19,000 mph, just 30 miles above the surface, and we're going to go right through the plume". He added that the flyby will be the most dramatic that the spacecraft has made.

The spacecraft's camera will capture pictures in the faint light and along with this will also sample the chemical components of the plume. Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at the laboratory, said that the close approach should help conclude whether stuff bursts out of Enceladus's interior in the type of individual jets.

The flyby may also help to release more details about whether living organisms can survive on this tiny ocean world, added Spilker. Cassini will inhale the plume for hydrogen gas that could provide a supply of nutrition for bacteria.