This map is part of a group release of Mercator and polar stereographic
projections of Saturn's moon Phoebe. A Mercator projection is a map that
preserves directions on a body, but distorts sizes, especially near the
poles. For the other maps, see PIA07795 and PIA07796.
This global digital map of Phoebe was created using data taken during the
Cassini spacecraft's close flyby of the small moon in June 2004.
The mosaic is projected into the Mercator projection within the latitude
range of 57 degrees south to 57 degrees north latitude; the stereographic
projections represent latitudes greater and lower than plus or minus 55
degrees. Thus, this map meets the standard scale of 1:1,000,000
recommended by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The projections are conformal, the quadrangles overlap and the scale of
the poles was chosen such that the circumference of the stereographic
projection is identical to the width of the Mercator projection.
The nomenclature (naming scheme) was proposed by the Cassini imaging team
and has yet to be validated by the International Astronomical Union.
Resolution of the digital mosaic is 233 meters (764 feet) per pixel,
although the highest resolution images have resolutions of 70 meters (230
feet) per pixel.
The mean radius of Phoebe is 106.8 kilometers (66 miles).
See PIA07775 for a global mosaic of Phoebe in Equidistant projection.
Equidistant projections preserve distances on a body, with some distortion
of area and direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European
Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The
Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and
assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space
Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team
homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
