This high-resolution image from Cassini shows a region of "smooth plains"
terrain on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus, located slightly north
of the equator on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere. The area is 70
kilometer by 84 kilometer (43 mile by 52 miles).
The image shows a variety of tectonic features that attest to Enceladus'
dynamic geological history. At the top of the image is a relatively
fresh-looking crevasse system with individual fractures more than a
kilometer wide. The crevasse system cross-cuts a complex
northeast-to-southwest-trending system of older faults. A
12-kilometer-wide (7-mile-wide) band of crudely aligned, chevron-shaped
features runs down the center of the image.
Among the most intriguing features in this view are a series of dark,
small spots, 125 to 750 meters (400 to 2,500 feet) in diameter. The dark
spots often seem to be aligned in chains parallel to narrow fractures.
The contrast of the dark features with the surrounding bright terrain
suggests that they may be compositionally distinct, but their origin is a
new mystery.
The orientation of the image is such that north is approximately 30
degrees clockwise from the bottom of the frame. Enceladus is 505
kilometers (314 miles) in diameter.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow
angle camera on Feb. 17, 2005, at a distance of 21,208 kilometers (13,178
miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle
of 27 degrees. Pixel scale in the image is 125 meters (410 feet) per
pixel. The image has been 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 and the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org.
