The tortured southern polar terrain of Enceladus appears strewn with great
boulders of ice in this fantastic view, one of the highest resolution
images obtained so far by Cassini of any world.
Some smearing of the image due to spacecraft motion is apparent in this
scene, which was acquired as Enceladus raced past Cassini's field of view
near the time of closest approach. At the time, the imaging cameras were
pointed close to the moon's limb (edge), rather than directly below the
spacecraft. This allowed for less motion blur than would have been
apparent had the cameras pointed straight down. Thus, the terrain imaged
here was actually at a distance of 319 kilometers (198 miles) from
Cassini.
At this fine scale, the surface is dominated by ice blocks between 10 and
100 meters (33 and 330 feet) across. The origin of these icy boulders is
enigmatic. Scientists are interested in studying the sizes and numbers of
the blocks in this bizarre scene, and in understanding whether terrain
covered with boulders is common on Enceladus.
A wide-angle camera view centered on this location on Enceladus is
available (see PIA06251), as well as a
comparison view showing the position of this image within the wide-angle
image (see PIA06250).
The image was taken during Cassini's very close flyby of Enceladus on
July 14, 2005, from a distance of approximately 208 kilometers (129 miles)
above Enceladus. Resolution in the image is about 4 meters (13 feet) per
pixel. The image has been contrast enhanced to improve the visibility of
surface.
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 team is based at the Space Science
Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
