This map of the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus shows the
correlation between jet sources identified in Cassini imaging data and hot
spots on the surface located by the composite infrared spectrometer
instrument.
To identify jet source locations on the surface, imaging scientists
carefully measured the locations and orientations of individual jets
observed along the moon's limb in Cassini images taken from multiple
viewing angles (see PIA08386). For each jet measurement, the researchers
then computed a curve, or ground track, on the surface of Enceladus along
which that jet might lie. The ground tracks from all of the measurements
made in the various images produced many intersections on this map. By
considering the jet directions at every possible intersection, the
researchers isolated eight clusters of ground track intersections as jet
sources.
The eight identified jet source locations are labeled with yellow roman
numerals. Composite infrared spectrometer hot spots are red boxes labeled
with green capital letters. The line-of-sight intersections indicating the
measurements of each source in individual images are shown as colored
diamonds. White circles indicate the uncertainty in the locations of those
sets of intersections.
The map is a polar stereographic projection of Cassini imaging data. The
four tiger stripe fractures, or sulci, are labeled here. The south pole is
dead center on the map. Key longitudes are also labeled around the
perimeter of the map.
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.
