The southern hemisphere of Enceladus is seen in this polar stereographic
map, mosaicked from the best-available Cassini and Voyager clear-filter
images.
The map is centered on the south pole and surface coverage extends to the
equator. Gridlines show latitude and longitude in 30-degree increments.
This map is being released along with a northern polar projection map
(See PIA07719).
These two maps show that the character of terrains near the north pole
differs strongly from those near the south pole. Terrain near the north
pole is among the most heavily cratered and oldest on the surface of
Enceladus. The northern hemisphere map (PIA07719) shows that a
broad band of cratered terrain extends from the equator on the
Saturn-facing side (centered on 0-degrees longitude), over the pole and
to the equator on the anti-Saturn side (centered on 180-degrees
longitude). Terrains near the equator and mid-latitudes on the leading
(90 degrees West) and trailing (270 degrees West) sides of Enceladus are
much less heavily cratered and are characterized by intense zones of
fracturing and faulting.
As seen in this southern hemisphere map, the band of cratered terrain at
0 and 180 degrees longitude extends southward from the equator. However,
poleward of about 55 degrees south latitude, the cratered terrain is
interrupted and replaced by a conspicuously fractured terrain around the
pole that is nearly devoid of impact craters. In contrast to the very old
north polar terrain, the southern polar terrain is among the youngest on
the surface of Enceladus.
Within the southern polar region is a group of prominent parallel
"stripes" made up of fractures that are delineated by relatively dark
reflective (albedo) markings flanking the sides of each fracture.
An interesting property of the parallel fracture system is that each
appears to turn back at its westernmost segment as if it has been "bent"
or "folded" into a hook-like curve. Similar patterns of folded or kinked
fractures can be found throughout the region - a unique feature of the
south polar terrains.
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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
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.
