Dione and Rhea pair up for an occultation, or mutual event, as seen by Cassini. While the lit portion of each moon is but a crescent, the dark side of Dione has begun to take a bite out of its distant sibling moon.
Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across and Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 17, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 120 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 21 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel on Dione and 25 kilometers (16 miles) per pixel on Rhea. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Bright fractures creep across the surface of icy Dione. This extensive canyon system is centered on a region of terrain that is significantly darker that the rest of the moon. Part of the darker terrain is visible at right.
Lit terrain in this view is on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up and rotated eight degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 677,000 kilometers (421,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 62 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Craters of all sizes litter the landscape on Dione. The larger craters in this view display prominent central peaks.
The image looks down onto northern latitudes on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). Lit terrain seen here is on the moon's anti-Saturn side.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 12, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (600,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 94 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This very detailed image taken during the Cassini spacecraft's closest approach to Saturn's moon Dione on Dec. 14, 2004 is centered on the wispy terrain of the moon. To the surprise of Cassini imaging scientists, the wispy terrain does not consist of thick ice deposits, but rather the bright ice cliffs created by tectonic fractures.
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.
Saturn's sibling moons, Rhea and Dione, pose for the Cassini spacecraft in this view.
Even at this distance, it is easy to see that Dione (below) appears to have been geologically active in the more recent past, compared to Rhea (above). Dione's smoother surface and linear depressions mark a contrast with Rhea's cratered terrain.
Sunlit terrain seen on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere. Lit terrain on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is on that moon's leading hemisphere. North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Rhea and 1.2 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Dione. The image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Dione.
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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks down over high northern latitudes on Dione.
The view captures terrain stretching from about 30 degrees south latitude to about 65 degrees north latitude on the moon's Saturn-facing side. Cassini obtained this view from a position 48 degrees above the equator of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 3, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 129,000 kilometers (80,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 87 degrees. Image scale is 767 meters (0.5 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09830: Battered Dione sur le site de la NASA.
Dione's leading hemisphere appears relatively smooth and placid here, compared to the fractured landscape on its trailing hemisphere.
See PIA08256 for a view of the trailing hemisphere.
Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Dione. Image scale is 9 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Dione floats past, with Saturn's rings beyond.
This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up. The darker terrain on the moon's trailing side is partly visible here, along with one of the bright linea -- the bright fractures that crisscross Dione's trailing side.
The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from less than a degree below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 26, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 883,000 kilometers (549,000 miles) from Dione. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09783: Icy Traveler sur le site de la NASA.
This incredible, high resolution view of Saturn's moon Dione was taken during Cassini's first close approach to the icy moon on Dec. 14, 2004. The view shows linear, curving features within the region of the bright wispy terrain Dione is known for.
The image was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera at a distance of approximately 156,000 kilometers (97,000 miles) from Dione. The Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle is 34 degrees. The image scale is about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) 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.
The moon Dione is eclipsed here by the narrow band of Saturn's rings, which in this image display one of the interesting ways that they transmit light. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
Researchers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope noticed during the 1995 Saturn ringplane crossing that the brightness of the rings when viewed nearly edge-on was dominated by the F ring. In this image, the near and far edges of the F ring form the bright upper and lower boundaries of the rings. The dark strip in between is not empty (otherwise Dione would likely be visible there), but rather represents the material in the A and B rings.
This view shows principally the Saturn-facing hemisphere on Dione.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 13, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Tethys. Resolution in the image is 13 kilometers (8 miles) 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's cratered moon Dione displays a large impact basin near its south pole in this Cassini spacecraft image. The topographic features that extend radially away from the basin could be secondary craters or tectonic grooves related to the impact. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
This view shows principally the leading hemisphere of Dione. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Nov. 2, 2004, at a distance of 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 100 degrees. North is up. The image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast enhanced to aid 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 and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
This view highlights tectonic faults and craters on Dione, an icy world that has undoubtedly experienced geologic activity since its formation.
To create the enhanced-color view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This "color map" was then superposed over a clear-filter image. The origin of the color differences is not yet understood, but may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up and rotated 20 degrees to the right.
See PIA07690 for a similar monochrome view.
All images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 151,000 kilometers (94,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 99 degrees. Image scale is 896 meters (2,940 feet) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Dione's southern polar region (shown here) contains fractures whose softened appearance suggests that they have different ages than the bright braided fractures seen in the image to the north. This region is also notably brighter than the near equatorial terrain at the top of the image.
At the center, several of the bright, radial streaks mark a feature named Cassandra, which may be a rayed crater or a tectonic feature.
This view of Dione (1,118 kilometers, or 695 miles across) captures high southern latitudes on the moon's trailing hemisphere.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 269,000 kilometers (167,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 41 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) 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 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.
Saturn's rings slice across this scene, obscuring the cracked face of Dione.
The contrast between the dark terrain on Dione's (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) trailing side and the brighter terrain on its leading side is particularly obvious here.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from less than a degree below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 17, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (970,000 miles) from Dione. Image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09842: Hiding Dione sur le site de la NASA.
Three sizeable impact craters, including one with a marked central peak, lie along the line that divides day and night on the Saturnian moon, Dione (dee-OH-nee), which is 1,118 kilometers, or 695 miles across. The low angle of the Sun along the terminator, as this dividing line is called, brings details like these craters into sharp relief.
This view shows principally the leading hemisphere of Dione. Some of this moon's bright, wispy streaks can be seen curling around its eastern limb. Cassini imaged the wispy terrain at high resolution during its first Dione flyby on Dec. 14, 2004.
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Nov. 1, 2004, at a distance of 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 106 degrees. North is up. The image scale is 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid 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 and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The Sun also rises on Saturn's moon Dione, seen in this image from Cassini. Wispy fractured terrain lies along the limb. Some details of the moon's topography can be noted along the terminator. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
This image is centered on territory at 310 degrees west longitude. The sunlit region in this view is on the trailing hemisphere on Dione. North is up and tilted 23 degrees to the left.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 12, 2005, through spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized green light. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 100 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 10 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two 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.
The leading hemisphere of Dione displays linear grooves and subtle streaks in this Cassini view.
Terrain visible here is on the moon's leading hemisphere. North on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up and rotated 17 degrees to the right.
See PIA07688 for a similar false color view.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 597,000 kilometers (371,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 21 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Soft light from Saturn lifts the veil of night from the moons Dione (lower left) and Rhea (upper right).
A scant crescent on each satellite marks the limit of the Sun's direct reach. The remaining light is reflected onto the moons by the Ringed Planet.
This view was acquired using an image compression scheme that results in minor artifacts being present -- on Rhea in particular. Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across, and pictured above) is somewhat bland in appearance at this image scale, although Dione's spectacular fractures stand out marvelously. Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across.
North on both moons is rotated 45 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Dione and 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Rhea. Image scale is 15 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel on Dione and 17 kilometers (11 miles) on Rhea.
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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini whizzed past Dione on Aug. 16, 2006, capturing this slightly motion-blurred view of the moon's fractured and broken landscape in reflected light from Saturn. The motion blur is a result of the long exposure time used to capture dim light from the moon's night side.
The many canyons on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) rip through more ancient craters. Some medium-sized craters, like the one right of center, have several others overprinted onto them.
This view shows southern terrain on the moon's trailing hemisphere. The gleaming, sunlit crescent is overexposed at bottom. North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 157,000 kilometers (98,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 129 degrees. Image scale is 935 meters (3,067 feet) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A gorgeous Dione poses for Cassini, with shadowed craters and bright, wispy streaks first observed by the Voyager spacecraft 24 years ago. The wispy areas will be imaged at higher resolution in mid-December 2004. Subtle variations in brightness across the surface of this moon are visible here as well. Dione's diameter is 1,118 kilometers, (695 miles).
The image shows primarily the trailing hemisphere of Dione, which is the side opposite the moon's direction of motion in its orbit. The image has been rotated so that north is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 27, 2004, at a distance of about 1.2 million kilometers (746,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 28 degrees. The image scale is 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) 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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, 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.
The Cassini spacecraft surveys the southern hemisphere on Dione's anti-Saturn side, spying a broad impact basin near bottom. Most of the medium-sized craters visible here have pointed central peaks, owing to the rebound of material following the craters' initial formation.
North on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 19, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 240,000 kilometers (149,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 44 degrees.Image scale is 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09821: Rebounded Craters sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft gazes down at linear tectonic features in Dione's northern hemisphere.
These features—several canyons and at least one ridge—are also visible in the upper right quadrant of PIA07746. The features themselves are heavily cratered, which suggests they are ancient.
Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles across). The view was acquired from 61 degrees north of the moon's equator.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 3, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 684,000 kilometers (425,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 69 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel at maximum resolution.
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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10477: Dione's Fractured North sur le site de la NASA.
Zooming in closer and closer, this movie chronicles Cassini's targeted flyby of Dione, with Saturn and its lovely rings forming a dramatic backdrop.
The movie begins with Cassini during its approach about 107,000 kilometers (66,000 miles) from the icy moon. Few surface details are discernable from this distance, but the view quickly improves. The movie jumps to a point 39,000 kilometers (24,000 miles) from Dione, with Saturn's atmosphere now in the background and draped by threadlike ring shadows.
As the spacecraft gets still closer, the camera focuses on bright fractures in the west. It becomes apparent that these braided canyons slice through older craters. At the closest point in this approach sequence, Cassini is about 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) above Dione's surface and the image scale is 234 meters (768 feet) per pixel. For a narrow-angle camera image taken at almost the same instant see PIA07748.
A dramatic shift in perspective follows, with Cassini moving past the point of closest approach and staring at a large crater on Dione's receding limb. Steep cliffs gleam in the sunlight as the intrepid craft pulls away. About three and a half hours have elapsed since the first image in the movie was taken.
This movie was created from clear-filter images taken during the Oct. 11, 2005, flyby of Dione. All images except the departing view were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera.
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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Dione floats in the sea of space, bisected by Saturn's edge-on ringplane.
The Saturn-facing side of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is visible here. Saturn is just off to the right of the image. North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 2, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.5 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Dione. Image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Dione shows Cassini some of the bright wispy streaks that cover much of the moon's trailing hemisphere. The streaks are thought to be deposits of icy material that has been extruded onto the moon's surface from the interior. Dione's diameter is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Sept. 28, 2004, at a distance of 7.3 million kilometers (4.5 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 79 degrees. The image scale is 44 kilometers (27 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of four 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 Cassini-Huygens 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.
This Cassini image of Saturn's moon Dione shows a nice view of the crater Aeneas on the terminator. The crater's diameter is approximately 175 kilometers (109 miles). The crater's central peak is about 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) high, which is comparable to the depth of the crater. This is principally the side of Dione that faces Saturn. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
The bright features on the moon's eastern limb are part of the fracture system seen at higher resolution in Cassini's first close approach to Dione on Dec. 14, 2004 (see PIA06162).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 10, 2004, at a distance of 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 46 degrees. The image scale is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and 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.
This southerly view of Dione shows enormous canyons extending from mid-latitudes on the trailing hemisphere, at right, to the moon's south polar region.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) and is centered on 22 degrees south latitude, 359 degrees west longitude. North on Dione is up; the moon's south pole is seen at bottom.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 8, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 211,000 kilometers (131,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 20 degrees. Image scale is 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09861: A Stressed Surface sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft views the far-off wispy canyons of Saturn's moon Dione and sees an interesting dichotomy between the bright wisps and the bright south polar region at the bottom.
The view looks toward the trailing hemisphere on Dione. North is up. Dione's diameter is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles).
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera on Sept. 20, 2005, through a filter combination sensitive to polarized green light. The image was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 64 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 12 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The cratered and cracked disk of Saturn's moon Dione looms ahead in this mosaic of images taken by Cassini on Oct. 11, 2005, as it neared its close encounter with the icy moon.
In this false-color mosaic, the clear-filter images are overlain by color composited from (compressed) infrared, green and ultraviolet images. The colors have been specially processed to accentuate subtle changes in the spectral properties of Dione's surface materials.
To create the color view, the color images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This "color map" was then superimposed over the clear-filter mosaic. Gaps in the imaging coverage appear black.
Multiple generations of tectonics can be seen in this full-disk view. Near the eastern limb (at the right) are tectonic fractures, which may be similar to the bright, braided canyons that make up Dione's noted wispy terrain. Some of the bright, wispy markings can be seen at the left.
The softer ridges and troughs at the upper right appear to be about the same age as the cratering seen in that region. These appear to be older than the fracturing seen in the wispy terrain and the fractures seen at the right.
Scientists continue to be intrigued by the strikingly linear features seen crisscrossing the southern latitudes. The fine latitudinal streaks appear to crosscut everything, and appear to be the youngest feature type in this region of Dione.
A large impact basin hugs the south polar region (at the bottom, right of center). Northeast of the basin is a region of terrain that is relatively smooth, compared to the rest of the moon.
This view of Dione is centered on 1.3 degrees south latitude, 167.6 degrees west longitude. For a clear-filter view see PIA07746.
The images in the mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at distances ranging from of 55,280 to 27,180 kilometers (34,350 to 16,890 miles) from Dione. The full-size versions of the mosaics have an image scale of 316 meters (1,036 feet) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This view highlights tectonic faults and craters on Dione, an icy world that has undoubtedly experienced geologic activity since its formation.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up and rotated 20 degrees to the right.
See PIA07691 for a similar false color view.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 151,000 kilometers (94,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 99 degrees. Image scale is 896 meters (2,940 feet) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Canyons and mountain peaks snake along the terminator on the crater-covered, icy moon Dione. With the Sun at a low angle on their local horizon, the line of mountain ridges above center casts shadows toward the east.
Sunlit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn hemisphere of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) -- the side that always faces away from Saturn. North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 15, 2006 at a distance of approximately 299,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 81 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks down from high latitude over Dione and the system of wispy fractures that coats the moon's trailing side.
This view looks toward Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) from 43 degrees above the equator. North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 14, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 938,000 kilometers (583,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 54 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09838: Dione Below sur le site de la NASA.
This Cassini image shows the night side of Saturn's moon Dione, dimly lit by "Saturnshine": that is, reflected light from the planet lying off to the left in Cassini's field of view when this image was taken. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 18, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 118 degrees. The image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) 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.
This unmagnified view of Saturn's moon Dione shows the moon's bright, wispy terrain, along with several large impact craters. Two of the craters have central peaks. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
North on Dione is up. This view shows principally the anti-Saturn hemisphere on Dione. It is clear why low-resolution NASA Voyager spacecraft images gave the impression that the Dionian wispy terrain might be bright ice deposits. High-resolution Cassini images have shown these to be complex systems of braided tectonic fractures.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 25, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 60 degrees. The image scale is 17 kilometers (11 miles) 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Bright lines creep across the face of Dione. The lines are systems of geologically fresh-looking canyons with bright, icy walls.
Lit terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing side of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North on Dione is up and rotated 18 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 18, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Dione. Image scale is about 15 kilometers (9 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
As it zoomed in on Saturn's moon Dione for a close flyby, the Cassini spacecraft captured a set of images of the icy moon which have been combined into a mosaic here to provide a stunningly detailed global view.
Five narrow angle frames comprise this view of the 'wispy terrain' on the anti-Saturn side of Dione. To the surprise of Cassini imaging scientists, the wispy terrain does not consist of thick ice deposits, but rather the bright ice cliffs created by tectonic fractures. The surface is also clearly very heavily cratered. The image scale is 0.9 kilometers (0.6 miles) per pixel; the phase angle is 34 degrees.
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.
The icy, cratered surface of Saturn's moon Dione shows more than just its sunlit side in these two processed versions of the same image.
The view at left, with only mild enhancement, shows a romantic crescent with large craters visible. The contrast in the version at the right has been greatly enhanced to show the side of Dione lit faintly by reflected light from Saturn. A similar phenomenon can be seen from Earth, when the Moon's dark side is visible due to "earthshine." The crater at the top of the image appears to have a sunlit central peak in the enhanced view -- a common characteristic of craters on Dione as seen in Voyager images. Slight variations in brightness on the moon's dark side hint at the bright curved linear streaks, seen by Voyager. These streaks are thought to be deposits of water ice.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 2, 2004, from a distance of about 1.4 million kilometers (860,000 thousand miles) from Dione, at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase angle of about 119 degrees. The image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel. Dione's diameter is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across. The images have been magnified by a factor of two 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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, 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.
The cratered and cracked disk of Saturn's moon Dione looms ahead in this mosaic of images taken by Cassini on Oct.11, 2005, as it neared its close encounter with the icy moon.
The images used for this mosaic are clear-filter views, which reveal a great deal of surface detail.
Multiple generations of tectonics can be seen in this full-disk view. Near the eastern limb (at the right) are tectonic fractures, which may be similar to the bright, braided canyons that make up Dione's noted wispy terrain. Some of the bright, wispy markings can be seen at the left.
The softer ridges and troughs at the upper right appear to be about the same age as the cratering seen in that region. These appear to be older than the fracturing seen in the wispy terrain and the fractures seen at the right.
Scientists continue to be intrigued by the strikingly linear features seen crisscrossing the southern latitudes. The fine latitudinal streaks appear to crosscut everything, and appear to be the youngest feature type in this region of Dione.
A large impact basin hugs the south polar region (at the bottom, right of center). Northeast of the basin is a region of terrain that is relatively smooth, compared to the rest of the moon.
This view of Dione is centered on 1.3 degrees south latitude, 167.6 degrees west longitude. For a false-color view see PIA07747.
The images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at distances ranging from of 55,280 to 27,180 kilometers (34,350 to 16,890 miles) from Dione. The full-size versions of the mosaics have an image scale of 316 meters (1,036 feet) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This Cassini spacecraft view, taken from a vantage point 64 degrees above Dione's equator, looks down onto the bright fractures that cover the moon's trailing side. The fractures crisscross a region of terrain that is significantly darker than the rest of the moon's surface.
Dione is 1,123 kilometers (698 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 15, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 601,000 kilometers (374,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 76 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10431: Above the Cracks sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft investigates the craters and deep valleys on Dione during a close approach in April 2007.
Significant variations in the density of impact craters on the surface of Dione can be seen here, with more craters seen on the right side of this mosaic (on Dione's sub-Saturn hemisphere) than on the left (on Dione's anti-Saturn hemisphere). The southern end of the bright Palatine Linea fracture system can be seen near the bottom of the mosaic. Along the terminator, at lower left, part of a large impact basin can be seen.
The mosaic is an orthographic projection centered at 33 degrees South, 74 degrees West, over the southern part of Dione's leading hemisphere. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer looking through a telescope. North on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up and rotated 6 degrees to the right.
The monochrome view uses a combination of images taken with spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of light centered at 338, 568 and 930 nanometers.
The images in this mosaic were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 24, 2007 at a distance of approximately 121,000 kilometers (75,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 55 degrees. Image scale is 723 meters (2,371 feet) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft continues to prove that the closer the view of the myriad worlds constituting the Saturn system, the more interesting and varied the views become. This close-up view of icy Dione reveals a wonderful variety of surface features that are simultaneously familiar and unlike any other place in the solar system.
The terrain in this image is located within a 60-kilometer-wide (37-mile) impact crater along the feature called Padua Linea. The western rim of the encompassing crater runs from the middle left to the upper right. The crater's central peak can be seen at the lower right.
Multiple generations of fractures are visible here. Numerous fine, roughly parallel linear grooves run across the terrain from top to bottom and are interrupted by the larger, irregular bright fractures. In several places, fractures postdate some deposits in the bottoms of craters that are not badly degraded by time. Such a fracture, for example, runs from the center toward the upper right.
Most of the craters seen here have bright walls and dark deposits of material on their floors. As on other Saturnian moons, rockslides on Dione may reveal cleaner ice, while the darker materials accumulate in areas of lower topography and lower slope (e.g. crater floors and the bases of scarps).
This view is centered on terrain near 11 degrees south latitude, 238 degrees west longitude.
This clear-filter image was taken using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2005, during Cassini's close targeted flyby of Dione. The image was acquired from a distance of 4,486 kilometers (2,787 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 10 degrees. The image scale is 23 meters (75 feet) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The leading hemisphere of Dione displays subtle variations in color across its surface in this false color view.
To create this view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This "color map" was then superposed over a clear-filter image. The origin of the color differences is not yet understood, but may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil.
Terrain visible here is on the moon's leading hemisphere. North on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up and rotated 17 degrees to the right.
See PIA07687 for a similar monochrome view.
All images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 597,000 kilometers (371,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 21 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks toward the bright linea -- geologically fresh-looking, icy canyons -- on Dione.
This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere of Dione (1126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 2, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 9 degrees. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
For this movie, Cassini pointed its cameras toward Saturn's moon Dione to witness its distant sibling moon Rhea briefly pass behind in a series of 32 individual frames taken over 17 minutes. Four individual frames from the eclipse are shown at bottom.
Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is larger than Dione (1,118 kilometers, or 695 miles across), but also is farther away as seen here, which explains why the two moons appear to be roughly the same angular size.
The view shows principally the anti-Saturn side of Dione, and the Saturn-facing side of far-off Rhea.
The images in this movie were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Dione and about 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Rhea. The image scale is approximately 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel on Dione and 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Rhea.
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.
This splendid view showcases Dione's tortured complex of bright cliffs. At lower right is the feature called Cassandra, exhibiting linear rays extending in multiple directions.
The trailing hemisphere of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is seen here. North is up.
The image was taken in polarized green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 24, 2006 at a distance of approximately 263,000 kilometers (163,000 miles) from Dione. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
As it departed its encounter with Saturn's moon Dione, Cassini sailed above an unreal landscape blasted by impacts. The rising Sun throws craters into sharp contrast and reveals steep crater walls.
At the far right, a medium-sized crater is bisected by a fracture, revealing a cross section of the impact site.
The seven clear-filter images in this mosaic were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2005, at distances ranging from of 21,650 to 25,580 kilometers (13,450 to 15,890 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 154 degrees. Resolution in the original images ranges from 126 to 154 meters (413 to 505 feet) per pixel. The images have been re-sized to have an image scale of about 100 meters (330 feet) per pixel. North on Dione is 140 degrees to the left.
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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Dione steps in front of Tethys for a few minutes in an occultation, or mutual event. These events occur frequently for the Cassini spacecraft when it is orbiting close to the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 10, 2006, at a distance of approximately 3.7 million kilometers (2.3 million miles) from Dione and 4 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Tethys. Resolution in the original image was 22 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) and 24 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). The image has been magnified by a factor of two.
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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Grooves and deep craters adorn terrain at high southern latitudes on Dione. The Cassini spacecraft revealed the fractured landscape of this moon's icy crescent in unparalleled detail in 2005 (see PIA07745).
This view looks down toward terrain centered at 65 degrees south latitude on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 23, 2007 at a distance of approximately 571,000 kilometers (355,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 92 degrees. Image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Dione's defining feature, the fractures on its trailing side, shine brilliantly in this Cassini spacecraft view.
The view was acquired from a position 33 degrees south of the moon's equator. Lit terrain seen here is on the trailing side of Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles across). North is up and rotated 8 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 11, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 833,000 kilometers (517,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 67 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 26, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 397,000 kilometers (246,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 20 kilometers (13 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10496: Bright Canyons sur le site de la NASA.
As Cassini spacecraft images often show, the Sun is not the only source of illumination in the Saturn System. The huge, reflective planet also shines upon its moons.
This image was acquired by Cassini two minutes after PIA09886 and looks almost directly at down onto the north pole of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). The left side of this image is illuminated by the Sun, and most of the right side is lit by reflected light from Saturn. Several background stars made faint trails across the sky during this long exposure.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 22, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 649,000 kilometers (403,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 99 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09889: The Light of Night sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's crescent moon Dione hangs before the Cassini spacecraft in this magnified image taken on July 19, 2004. The icy moon shows a hint of the bright, wispy features that mark its surface.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera at a distance of 6.2 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) from Dione, and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase angle, of 96 degrees. The image scale is 37 kilometers (25 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of four 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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, 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.
The distinctive, wispy system of fractures on the trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon Dione shows a great deal of contrast in this ultraviolet view. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
North on Dione is up and tilted 30 degrees to the left.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 7, 2005, using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The image was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 50 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two 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.
The bright fractures on Dione's trailing side slice across terrain that is darker than the rest of the surface.
Cassini scientists are working to understand the nature of the dark material that appears to coat the surfaces of several of Saturn's moons. Only after the Cassini spacecraft began imaging Dione did they realize that the prominent "streaks" shown here are fractures on the surface.
Lit terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing side of Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 17, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 873,000 kilometers (543,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 47 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10409: Bright Lines, Dark Canvas sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini spied a crater-covered Dione in this image from Dec. 8, 2004. The bright, wispy streaks for which Dione is known are located on the moon's night side to the west. The streaky terrain was imaged at very high resolution by Cassini during its flyby of Dione on Dec. 14, 2004. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
This view shows mostly the trailing hemisphere of Dione. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera at a distance of 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 58 degrees. North is up. The image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid 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 and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The wispy fractured terrain on Dione is illuminated here by "Saturnshine" -- dim reflected light from the planet.
The region pictured on Dione (1,126 kilometers, 700 miles across) is on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere. North is up.
The image was taken in polarized green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 24, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft spies bright fractures in the icy crust of Dione. These bright "linea" cover the moon's trailing hemisphere and were imaged by Cassini at high resolution in 2005 (see PIA07368).
This view looks toward the northern hemisphere on Dione's anti-Saturn side. North on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up and rotated 33 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 1, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 60 degrees. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Bright icy fractures, or linea, cover the trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon, Dione.
The Cassini spacecraft imaged the fractured terrain at high resolution in October 2005 (See PIA07638).
Lit terrain seen here is on the trailing hemisphere of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The image was taken on Feb. 3, 2007 at a distance of approximately 927,000 kilometers (576,000 miles) from Dione. Image scale is 6 kilometers (3 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Dione's dark trailing hemisphere (toward the left) and bright leading hemisphere are both visible in this view centered on the moon's anti-Saturn facing side.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 21, 2008 at a distance of approximately 863,000 kilometers (537,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 30 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10549: Dione's Transition Zone sur le site de la NASA.
Bright, icy canyons stretch across the surface of Dione.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up and rotated 23 degrees to the right. This is a more distant and more southerly view of the terrain seen in PIA09830.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 4, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 306,000 kilometers (190,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 38 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09832: Cracked-up Dione sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini prepared for its rendezvous with Dione on Oct. 11, 2005, capturing the brilliant, cratered iceball in front of its shadow-draped planet.
The terrain seen here becomes notably darker toward the west, and is crosscut by the bright, fresh canyons that form wispy markings on Dione's trailing hemisphere. Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 24,500 kilometers (15,200 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 22 degrees. The image scale is about 2 kilometers (1 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.Dione appears small and far off in this Cassini view, which nonetheless manages to capture a detailed look at the moon's beautiful bright streaks, or "linea." The linea are a system of braided canyons that cut across the moon's face.
North on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up and rotated 28 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 29, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 28 degrees. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Dione looks lovely half lit in this portrait from the Cassini spacecraft. Just visible is a long canyon running southward just left of the terminator.
The view looks down at northern latitudes on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 29, 2006 at a distance of approximately 939,000 kilometers (583,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 101 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (3 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Bright, wispy-looking fractures reach across the rugged, icy landscape of Dione.
See PIA06163 for a close-up view of Dione's icy canyons.
The medium-sized crater Dido, with its prominent central peak, sits just right of the terminator, below center.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles across). North is toward the top and rotated six degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 21, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 290,000 kilometers (180,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 89 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10458: Beyond the Canyons sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft takes in the crater-strewn surface near Dione's south pole in this natural color view. Long fractures slice across the surface here, as on other parts of the moon. Previous Cassini imaging investigations have shown that the canyons seen here do not appear to have the bright, presumably youthful, walls seen in fractures nearer the equator (see PIA07581).
Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 8, 2007 at a distance of approximately 268,000 kilometers (166,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 92 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (5,249 feet) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This global digital map of Saturn's moon Dione was created using data taken during Cassini and Voyager spacecraft flybys. The map is an equidistant projection and has a scale of 977 meters (3,205 feet) per pixel.
The mean radius of Dione used for projection of this map is 560 kilometers (348 miles). The resolution of the map is 10 pixels per degree.
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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks down, almost directly at the north pole of Dione. The feature just left of the terminator at bottom is Janiculum Dorsa, a long, roughly north-south trending ridge.
Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn and trailing sides of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across).The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 22, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 650,000 kilometers (404,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 99 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09886: Dione: North Polar View sur le site de la NASA.
The fractured terrain so distinctive to Dione curves away toward the south in this view, which looks down at the moon's northern hemisphere.
Lit terrain in this view is on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 22, 2006 at a distance of approximately 943,000 kilometers (586,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 109 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cool and icy Dione floats in front of giant Saturn bedecked in a dazzling array of colors.
The surface of Dione, which exhibits contrasting bright and dark areas when viewed up close, appears pale in this image. It is Saturn's multi-hued cloud bands that boldly steal the show. Discrete clouds and eddies in Saturn's northern hemisphere can be seen within the faint shadows of the rings on the planet. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
Cassini is in a phase of its mission in which its orbit will be nearly equatorial for some time. This view was obtained from about one-third of a degree out of the ring plane.
Images taken with red, green and blue filters were used to create this natural-color view. The images were obtained with the wide-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2005, from a distance of approximately 803,000 kilometers (499,000 miles) from Dione and at a sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 43 degrees. The image scale is about 48 kilometers (30 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's moon Dione is about to swing around the edge of the thin F ring in this color view. More than one thin strand of the F ring's tight spiral can be seen here.
The terrain seen on Dione is on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere. The diameter of Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles).
Images taken using infrared, green and ultraviolet spectral filters were composited to create this color view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 48 degrees. The image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
As artful as it is informative, this captivating portrait captures Saturn's wispy moon Dione over the shoulder of smoggy Titan in a single inspiring scene. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across and Titan is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 18, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles) from Dione and 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Titan. The image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel on Dione, and 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Titan.
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.
In this image, Dione, a moon of Saturn, exhibits some of the interesting bright and dark markings for which it is renowned. From Voyager images, Dione is known to have bright wispy markings, some of which may be visible here. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) wide.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Sept. 15, 2004, at a distance of 8.8 million kilometers (5.4 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 83 degrees. The image scale is 53 kilometers (33 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of four and 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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, 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.
Canyons slink southward on Dione, while bright-walled craters gleam in the sun. The Cassini spacecraft imaged this same region from a more southerly viewpoint during an approach earlier this year (see PIA08956).
This view is centered on 9 degrees north latitude, 51 degrees west longitude. North on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up.
The image was taken in polarized green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 30, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 197,000 kilometers (122,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 25 degrees. Image scale is 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09772: Facing Dione sur le site de la NASA.
Bright fractures adorn the trailing side of Saturn's moon Dione.
This view looks toward the northern hemisphere of Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles across). North is toward the top of the image.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 29, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 810,000 kilometers (503,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 60 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10441: Dione's Bright Streaks sur le site de la NASA.
Speeding toward pale, icy Dione, Cassini's view is enriched by the tranquil gold and blue hues of Saturn in the distance. The horizontal stripes near the bottom of the image are Saturn's rings. The spacecraft was nearly in the plane of the rings when the images were taken, thinning them by perspective and masking their awesome scale. The thin, curving shadows of the C ring and part of the B ring adorn the northern latitudes visible here, a reminder of the rings' grandeur.
It is notable that Dione, like most of the other icy Saturnian satellites, looks no different in natural color than in monochrome images.
Images taken on Oct. 11, 2005, with blue, green and infrared (centered at 752 nanometers) spectral filters were used to create this color view, which approximates the scene as it would appear to the human eye. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 39,000 kilometers (24,200 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 22 degrees. The image scale is about 2 kilometers (1 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Wispy streaks curl over the horizon on Saturn's moon Dione, caught here in a distant view from Cassini. The streaks were first revealed by NASA's Voyager spacecraft and subsequently were shown by Cassini to be an immense system of linear fractures in the moon's surface. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The image was acquired on Feb. 18, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 118 degrees. The image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) 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.
When naming features on other worlds, scientists like to follow themes, and Dione is no exception. Dione possesses numerous features with names from Virgil's "Aeneid." The prominent crater showing a central peak below the center is Dido, a 118-kilometer-wide (73-mile) crater named after the supposed founder of Carthage. The crater just above Dido is Antenor, an 82-kilometer-wide (51-mile) impact crater named after the nephew of Priam who founded the Italian city of Padua. At the upper right is the 97-kilometer-wide (60-mile) impact crater Turnus, which lies at the western end of Carthage Linea, a region of bright, fractured terrain. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
The sunlit terrain seen here shows some of the wispy markings on the moon's trailing hemisphere. Cassini revealed that these markings are actually a complex system of fractures.
North on Dione is up and rotated 25 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 25, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 107 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in 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.
The Cassini spacecraft catches a glimpse of the bright fractures that adorn the trailing side of icy Dione.
North on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 18, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (623,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 45 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09801: Dione's Fractured Face sur le site de la NASA.
Bright, wispy fractures streak across Dione's trailing side. Following the Voyager flybys of the early 1980s, scientists considered the possibility that the streaks were bright material extruded by cryovolcanism. A quarter-century later, Cassini's close passes and sharp vision showed these features to be a system of braided canyons with bright walls.
North on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 30, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 45,000 kilometers (28,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 36 degrees. Image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The bright crescent of Saturn's moon Dione skims along just above Saturn's ringplane as storms churn in the planet's atmosphere below. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
The spectral filter used to capture this observation is particularly sensitive to high altitude clouds above most of the methane gas in Saturn's atmosphere. Dark areas in this view are regions where light penetrates the atmosphere unimpeded by such thin, high clouds.
Notable near the upper right is the turbulent southern boundary of Saturn's bright mid-equatorial zone. Cassini measured wind speeds at the altitude of the high, bright clouds north of this boundary to be 250 to 300 meters per second (560 to 670 miles per hour).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 5, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn using a combination of filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized and infrared light centered at 705 and 728 nanometers, respectively. The image scale is 74 kilometers (46 miles) 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's cratered, icy moons, Rhea and Dione, come alive with vibrant color that reveals new information about their surface properties.
To create these false-color views, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This "color map" was then superimposed over a clear-filter image of each moon.
The combination of color map and brightness image shows how the colors vary across the moon's surface in relation to geologic features. The origin of the color differences is not yet understood, but may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil.
The Rhea view is a two-image mosaic. Images in the mosaic were acquired on Aug. 1, 2005, at a mean distance of 214,700 kilometers (133,400 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 88 degrees. Image scale is 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) per pixel.
The mosaic shows terrain on the trailing hemisphere of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across), and is centered on 42 degrees south latitude. North is up and rotated 28 degrees to the left.
Images in the Dione false-color view were acquired on Aug. 1, 2005, at a mean distance of 267,600 kilometers (166,300 miles) from Dione. Image scale is 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The image shows terrain on the trailing hemisphere of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across), and is centered on 41 degrees south latitude. North is up.
The images have not been scaled to show the moons' proper relative sizes.
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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.Cassini captured Dione against the globe of Saturn as it approached the icy moon for its close rendezvous on Dec. 14, 2004. This natural color view shows the moon has strong variations in brightness across its surface, but a remarkable lack of color, compared to the warm hues of Saturn's atmosphere. Several oval-shaped storms are present in the planet's atmosphere, along with ripples and waves in the cloud bands.
The images used to create this view were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 603,000 kilometers (375,000 miles) from Dione through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle is 34 degrees. The image scale is about 32 kilometers (20 miles) 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.
The soft appearance of Dione's wispy terrains belies their true nature. They are, in fact, complex systems of crisp, braided fractures that cover the moon's trailing hemisphere.
(See PIA06162) for a closer view of the fractures.)This view shows the western potion of the wispy terrain on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). The craters Dido and Antenor can be seen near the terminator at lower left.
In the rings above, the dark Cassini Division between the A and B rings is visible.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Oct. 9, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 52 degrees. The image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.Myriad vortices churn through Saturn's high northern latitudes while Dione's shadow drifts across the gas giant's face.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 43 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 7, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (760,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 69 kilometers (43 miles) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09917: Raging Planet sur le site de la NASA.
Dione's icy surface is scarred by craters and sliced up by multiple generations of geologically-young bright fractures. Numerous fine, roughly-parallel linear grooves run across the terrain in the upper left corner.
Most of the craters seen here have bright walls and dark deposits of material on their floors. As on other Saturnian moons, rockslides on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) may reveal cleaner ice, while the darker materials accumulate in areas of lower topography and lower slope (e.g. crater floors and the bases of scarps).
The terrain seen here is centered at 15.4 degrees north latitude, 330.3 degrees west longitude, in a region called Carthage Linea. North on Dione is up and rotated 50 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2005, at a distance of approximately 19,600 kilometers (12,200 miles) from Dione. The image scale is about 230 meters (760 feet) 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.This close-up of Dione's icy surface shows deeply shadowed craters near the terminator, as well as a group of roughly linear faults above center.
The terrain shown here is on the moon's leading hemisphere. North on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is up and tilted 21 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 152,000 kilometers (94,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 109 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 904 meters (2,965 feet) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and 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 operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.