This magnified view shows tiny Polydeuces, a moon that was discovered by
the Cassini spacecraft and is a mere 3 kilometers (2 miles) across. Along
with much larger Helene (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across), Polydeuces
orbits Saturn at the same distance as large, icy Dione (1,126 kilometers,
or 700 miles across).
Because this body was only recently discovered and is so small, scientists
presently know precious little about it. Further observations by Cassini
may yield additional insights about its nature and composition.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May
22, 2006 at a distance of approximately 73,000 kilometers (45,000 miles)
from Polydeuces and at a Sun-Polydeuces-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 41
degrees. The image was obtained using a spectral filter sensitive to
wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. Scale in the
original image was 434 meters (1,423 feet) per pixel. The image has been
magnified by a factor of four and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
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.
