Nasa released photos of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus yesterday after spacecraft Cassini obtained the images during its fly-by on Wednesday.

Cassini flew 1,839 kilometres above the surface of the ocean-bearing moon.

The images of the northern extremes of 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 due on October 28.