A fresh look at Saturn's moon Enceladus reveals tempting new details about
the brightest real estate in the solar system. This false-color image
shows that some of the linear features on Enceladus have a slightly
different color from their surroundings. Different colors of ice may be
caused by varying compositions or varying ice crystal sizes. Either of
which can indicate different formation mechanisms or different ages.
Enceladus is 505 kilometers (314 miles) across.
The new view shows some of the smooth plains noted in NASA's Voyager
spacecraft images and earlier Cassini images. At about the seven o'clock
position are interwoven linear patterns that are reminiscent of the
wispy-terrain features on two of Saturn's other moons, Dione and Rhea.
Imaging scientists are not sure whether these brighter markings are
evidence for contamination of the ice in the linear features by some
other material. Analysis of high resolution images of Enceladus should
also show whether, like the surprising terrain seen on Dione, the "wisps"
are curvilinear fractures that are not quite resolved at this scale.
This false color view combines images obtained using filters sensitive to
ultraviolet, polarized green and infrared light. The images were obtained
with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Feb. 16, 2005, at
distances ranging from 179,727 to 179,601 kilometers (111,677 to 111,599
miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle
of 22 degrees. Resolution in the image is about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile)
per pixel.
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.
