Cassini took this image of the ropy, taffy-like topography on Saturn's
moon Enceladus as it soared above the icy moon on Feb. 17, 2005.
This view, about 60 kilometers across (37 miles), shows several different
kinds of ridge-and-trough topography, indicative of a variety of
horizontal forces near the surface of this 505-kilometer (314-mile)
diameter satellite.
Several different kinds of deformation are visible, and a small population
of impact craters shows that this is some of the younger terrain on
Enceladus. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the bottom.
Interestingly, the topographic relief is only about one kilometer, which
is quite low for a small, low gravity satellite. However, this is
consistent with other evidence that points to interior melting and
resurfacing in Enceladus' history.
This view was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft
narrow angle camera, at a distance of 10,750 kilometers (6,680 miles)
from Enceladus, and at Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 32
degrees. Image scale is 60 meters (197 feet) per pixel. The image has
been contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
A stereo or 3-D version of this region on Enceladus is also
available (see PIA06189).
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.
