The tortured southern polar terrain of Saturn's moon Enceladus appears
strewn with great boulders of ice in these two fantastic views -- the
highest resolution images obtained so far by Cassini of any world.
This comparison view consists of a wide-angle camera image (left) for
context, and a high-resolution narrow-angle camera image (right). The two
images were acquired at an altitude of approximately 208 kilometers (129
miles), as Cassini made its closest approach yet to Enceladus.
The wide-angle view shows what appears to be a geologically youthful,
tectonically fractured terrain.
In the narrow-angle view, some smearing of the image due to spacecraft
motion is apparent. Both of these views were acquired as Enceladus raced
past Cassini's field of view near the time of closest approach. At the
time, the imaging cameras were pointed close to the moon's limb (edge),
rather than directly below the spacecraft. This allowed for less 'motion
blur' than would have been apparent had the cameras pointed straight down.
Thus, the terrain imaged here was actually at a distance of 319 kilometers
(198 miles) from Cassini.
At the fine scale afforded by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle view,
the surface is dominated by ice blocks between 10 and 100 meters (33 and
330 feet) across. The origin of these icy boulders is enigmatic.
Scientists are interested in studying the sizes and numbers of the blocks
in this bizarre scene, and in understanding whether terrain covered with
boulders is common on Enceladus.
The images in this comparison view are available individually (see PIA06251 and
PIA06252).
Image scale is about 4 meters (13 feet) per pixel in the narrow-angle
image and about 37 meters (121 feet) per pixel in the wide-angle image.
The wide-angle image has been magnified by a factor of two. The contrast
in both images has been enhanced to improve the visibility of surface
features.
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 additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.