The finest details on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus are revealed
in this 30-meter (100-foot) per-pixel, enhanced-color image taken during
Cassini's closest-ever encounter with Enceladus on March 9, 2005.
The surface of Enceladus is almost uniformly white and even though the
natural color of this scene has been exaggerated in intensity, no obvious
departure from the uniform hue is apparent. The image was also processed
to enhance contrast while avoid saturation of the brightest parts of the
scene. Hence, the surface does not have the brightness of fresh snow, as
it would appear to the human eye.
The Sun is illuminating the surface from the left of the image and at a
low enough angle that the rugged ridge crests near upper left (which range
in height from 50 to 100 meters or 164 to 328 feet) cast dramatic shadows,
as at the top center of the image. The origin of the very small dark spots
in the ridged terrain is uncertain. They could be shadows cast by small,
building-sized outcrops (approximately 60-meter or 200-feett high) just at
the limits of resolution.
Intriguingly, the craters in this scene are quite subdued, indicating that
they have been degraded by some process. The craters clearly predate most
of the fractures.
Additionally, multiple sets of fractures running in different directions
can be seen. One set above the lower right has a gentle appearance similar
to that of the craters. In contrast, the fractures running along the left
are fresher. By studying differences in the morphology and patterns of the
fractures, scientists will be able to learn about Enceladus' crust and how
it, and geologic processes acting within it, have changed over time.
Images obtained using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined
to create this view. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft
narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 5,200 kilometers
(3,200 miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase,
angle of 39 degrees. The scene is centered on a region at -3 degrees
latitude and 218 degrees longitude.
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 and the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org.
