The leading hemisphere of Dione displays subtle variations in color across
its surface in this false color view.
To create this view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined
into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional
color differences. This "color map" was then superposed over a
clear-filter image. The origin of the color differences is not yet
understood, but may be caused by subtle differences in the surface
composition or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil.
Terrain visible here is on the moon's leading hemisphere. North on Dione
(1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up and rotated 17 degrees to
the right.
See PIA07687 for a similar monochrome view.
All images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera
on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 597,000 kilometers
(371,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle
of 21 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
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. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at
http://ciclops.org.
