This colorful graphic illustrates that despite Phoebe's bumpy, irregular
topography, the moon has a fairly round shape. A digitally rendered shape
model of Phoebe was constructed using Cassini imaging data obtained before
and after the spacecraft's close flyby of the Saturnian moon on June 11,
2004.
The average diameter of Phoebe is about 214 kilometers (133 miles). The
four views of the model are each separated by a 90 degree rotation; the
upper left is centered at 0 degrees West longitude. The others show
regions of the moon centered at 90, 180 and 270 degrees West longitude,
as labeled. The coloring of the models corresponds to the height of
Phoebe's surface, relative to the lowest point -- a range of about 16
kilometers (10 miles) -- going from blue (low) to red (high).
Interestingly, much of this range in height occurs in one large crater,
visible in the 180 degree West view.
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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras,
were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based
at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org.
