The eastern rim of the large crater Odysseus is visible along the
terminator in this image of Saturn's moon Tethys. This enormous impact
feature is the largest on Tethys, at approximately 450 kilometers (280
miles) across. The shadowy rim of another smaller crater can be seen at
the bottom. Tethys is 1,060 kilometers (659 miles) across.
This Cassini view shows principally the leading hemisphere of Tethys. The
image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle
camera on Dec. 18, 2004, at a distance of 1.7 million kilometers (1.1
million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase,
angle of 94 degrees. The image scale is about 10 kilometers (6 miles)
per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two 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 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 images visit the Cassini imaging team home page
http://ciclops.org.