This extreme false-color view of Mimas shows color variation across the
moon's surface.
To create this false-color view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images
were combined into a single picture that isolates and maps regional color
differences. This "color map" was then superimposed onto a clear-filter
image that preserves the relative brightness across the body.
The combination of color map and brightness image shows how colors vary
across Mimas' surface, and in particular, between the terrain on the
extreme right side of this view and the rest of the surface. The origin of
the color differences is not yet understood, but may be caused by subtle
differences in the surface composition between the two terrains.
A monochrome view, the clear filter image used for the color map, is also
available. See PIA08842. The view is toward the southern hemisphere on the
anti-Saturn side of Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across).
The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on
Nov. 20, 2006 at a distance of approximately 150,000 kilometers (93,000
miles) from Mimas. Image scale is 898 meters (2,947 feet) 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/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team
homepage is at http://ciclops.org.