NASA researchers were excited to take a closer look at Saturn’s moon Enceladus on Wednesday, when its Cassini spacecraft performed a flyby through the plumes of what appear to be geysers at the moon’s South Pole. With an astounding 15 kilometers per second speed, the spacecraft had the mission to collect samples from the plumes, which are said to contain water-ice, dust and gas particles.

In addition to that, scientists were able to study new images that show by comparison the differences between the geological history of the moon’s South and North Pole. As the latest images have unveiled, the northern emisphere , and particularly the North Pole region, is older and full of craters of various sizes, compared to the southern emisphere.

“These new images are showing us in great detail how the moon's north pole differs from the south, an important comparison for working out the moon's obviously complex geological history," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader, Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

Porco also added that “the success of yesterday's daring and very low-altitude flyby means this coming summer's very close encounter, when we get exquisitely detailed images of the surface sources of Enceladus' south polar jets, should be an exciting 'next big step' in understanding just how the jets are powered."

This was the closes approach from Cassini up to date, and with the help of two instruments, a Cosmic Dust Analyzer and an Ion and Neutral Mass Spectometer, the spacecraft collected data in one of the four flybys of Enceladus scheduled this year.

Everything appeared to be going well, except for software issues with the Cosmic Dust Analyzer that prevented it from collecting data during the closest approach. However, the instrument did manage to get data before and after the approach.

Scientists are trying to uncover if there is a connection between the mysterious geysers and the presence of liquid water, perhaps of an ocean beneath its surface even. It would be a revolutionary discovery in the sense that water could mean favorable condition for living organisms to develop, one thing scientist have been looking for.