In the nick of time, the Cassini spacecraft snapped this image of the eastern rim of Saturn's moon Rhea's bright, ray crater. The impact event appears to have made a prominent bright splotch on the leading hemisphere of Rhea (see PIA06648). Because Cassini was traveling so fast relative to Rhea as the flyby occurred, the crater would have been out of the camera's field of view in any earlier or later exposure.
The crater's total diameter is about 50 kilometers (30 miles), but this rim view shows details of terrains both interior to the crater and outside its rim. The prominent bright scarp, left of the center, is the crater wall, and the crater interior is to the left of the scarp. The exterior of the crater (right of the scarp) is characterized by softly undulating topography and gentle swirl-like patterns that formed during the emplacement of the large crater's continuous blanket of ejecta material.
Numerous small craters conspicuously pepper the larger crater's floor and much of the area immediately outside of it. However, in some places, such as terrain in the top portion of the image and the bright crater wall, the terrain appears remarkably free of the small impacts. The localized "shot pattern" and non-uniform distribution of these small craters indicate that they are most likely secondary impacts -- craters formed from fallback material excavated from a nearby primary impact site. Because they exist both inside and outside the large crater in this image, the source impact of the secondary impacts must have happened more recently than the impact event that formed the large crater in this scene.
This is one of the highest-resolution images of Rhea's surface obtained during Cassini's very close flyby on Nov. 26, 2005, during which the spacecraft swooped to within 500 kilometers (310 miles) of the large moon. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across and is Saturn's second largest moon, after planet-sized Titan.
The clear filter image was acquired with the wide-angle camera at an altitude of 511 kilometers (317 miles) above Rhea. Image scale is about 34 meters (112 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.
Click on the image for the movie
Dark spokes dance around Saturn's B ring in this series of movies comprised of images taken with Cassini's wide-angle camera.
This animation is a concatenation of spoke movies acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in the second half of 2008 on Aug. 21, Sept. 19, Sept. 26, Oct. 11, and Nov. 25.
As Saturn nears equinox in August 2009 and the sun angle on the ring plane decreases, spokes become common sights in Cassini images, just as they were in Voyager images (See PIA02275). The planet's orbital period is 29.5 years, so Saturn has nearly made one complete trip around the sun since the flybys of the two Voyager spacecraft in 1980 and 1981, allowing Cassini to closely match Voyager's viewing geometry.
Each of these five movies shows the sunlit side of the rings at low solar phase, or spacecraft-rings-sun, angles. The spokes appear dark against Saturn's B ring at low phase angles because the particles within them scatter light more efficiently in the forward direction (away from Cassini) than the surrounding larger ring particles. In the opposite viewing geometry, at high phase angles, spokes appear bright relative to surrounding ring particles (See PIA07807).
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 PIA11144: 'Tis the Season for Spokes sur le site de la NASA.
Rhea displays a marked color contrast from north to south that is particularly easy to see in the extreme color-enhanced Cassini spacecraft view presented here.
A clear filter image is also presented (left) alongside the color composite (right).
To create the false-color view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This "color map" was then superimposed over a clear-filter image that preserves the relative brightness across the body.
The combination of color map and brightness image shows how colors vary across the surface of Rhea. 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 surface material.
This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). The view shows southerly latitudes on Rhea, down to the south pole. North is up and rotated 17 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 17, 2007 at a distance of approximately 457,000 kilometers (284,000 miles) from Rhea. 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.
This giant mosaic reveals Saturn's icy moon Rhea in her full, crater-scarred glory.
This view consists of 21 clear-filter images and is centered at 0.4 degrees south latitude, 171 degrees west longitude.
The giant Tirawa impact basin is seen above and to the right of center. Tirawa, and another basin to its southwest, are both covered in impact craters, indicating they are quite ancient.
The bright, approximately 40-kilometer-wide (25-mile) ray crater seen in many Cassini views of Rhea is located on the right side of this mosaic (at 12 degrees south latitude, 111 degrees west longitude). See PIA07764 for a close-up view of the eastern portion of the bright, ray crater.
There are few signs of tectonic activity in this view. However, the wispy streaks on Rhea that were seen at lower resolution by NASA's Voyager and Cassini spacecraft, were beyond the western (left) limb from this perspective. In high-resolution Cassini flyby images of Dione, similar features were identified as fractures caused by extensive tectonism.
Rhea is Saturn's second-largest moon, at 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
The images in this mosaic were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera during a close flyby on Nov. 26, 2005. The images were acquired as Cassini approached the moon at distances ranging from 79,190 to 58,686 kilometers (49,206 to 36,466 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 19 degrees. Image scale in the mosaic is 354 meters (1,161 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.
Click on the image for the movie
The Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera captured Saturn's moon Rhea as it gradually slipped into the planet's shadow—an event known as "ingress" —on Aug. 19, 2008.
Seventeen consecutive clear-filter images are in this movie showing an eclipse ingress across the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Rhea. Because sunlight still penetrates the planet's upper atmosphere and the sun has a finite size, the shadow of Saturn cast onto Rhea does not form a sharp line.
North on Saturn and Rhea is up in these images. The shadow moves from the upper left to lower right (northwest to southeast) because the moon's orbital plane around Saturn is inclined relative to the path, called the ecliptic, that the sun takes around the moon as viewed from its surface.
With Saturn approaching its August 2009 equinox in its orbit around the sun, the motion of the planet's shadow during future eclipses will trend more towards west-to-east (left-to-right) on ingress. After 2009, the trend will reverse, and the motion of Saturn's shadow will become more southwest-to-northeast, until the inclination of the orbital plane (relative to the ecliptic) becomes so large that Saturn's shadow no longer intersects with the orbits of moons such as Rhea and eclipse "season" ends.
The first frame of the movie displays Rhea's hemispherical albedo (brightness) dichotomy. The left half of the moon, its leading hemisphere, is remarkably brighter than the right half, its trailing hemisphere. Saturn's E-ring particles, which have their origins in the famous jets of the small moon Enceladus, preferentially impact Rhea's leading hemisphere, churning up its surface and enhancing its . Saturn's extremely tenuous E ring is so expansive that at least 11 moons orbit within it.
These images were acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft at a solar phase, or sun-Rhea-spacecraft, angle of about 28 degrees at a distance of approximately 450,000 kilometers (280,000 miles). Image scale is around 2.7 kilometers (1.7 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.
Voir l'image PIA11143: Darkness Falls on Rhea sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft acquired this view of Rhea's leading hemisphere near "opposition," or with the Sun almost directly behind the camera.
Under this geometry, topography appears less rugged because crater rims and hills hide their own shadows. Consequently, in this view, the contrast between ejecta from Rhea's bright ray crater and the surrounding terrain is subdued, making the rays barely discernible. (Look towards the upper left hand side to see the rays.)
In this image, the brightest features are sunward-facing crater walls.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 29, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.346 million kilometers (836,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 1 degree. 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 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 PIA10542: Where Have All the Shadows Gone? sur le site de la NASA.
Rhea floats below the innermost regions of Saturn's amazing rings. This view of the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) allows a glimpse of the wispy terrain that covers the trailing hemisphere of Rhea.
(See PIA06575) & PIA06578) for similar views of the wispy terrain.)The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Oct. 9, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 51 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.Though much farther away from Cassini when the spacecraft acquired this image, Saturn's second-largest moon Rhea still dwarfs the brightest icy moon Enceladus in this scene. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across. Enceladus is 505 kilometers (314 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 21, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Enceladus and 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Rhea. The image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Enceladus, and 15 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.
Two slim crescents smile toward the Cassini spacecraft following an occultation event.
Taken only five minutes after Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) first approached the limb of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across), this view shows the bright little moon emerging from behind the larger moon's crescent. (See PIA08229 for the earlier view.)
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 4, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Rhea and 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Enceladus. The view was obtained at a Sun-moon-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 142 degrees relative to both moons. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 11 kilometers (7 miles) on Enceladus.
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 markings stretch across a region of darker terrain on Saturn's moon Rhea. In this extreme false-color view, the roughly north-south fractures occur within strips of material (which appear greenish here) that are a different color from the surrounding cratered landscape.
To create the false-color view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. Most of the large-scale variations in brightness across the surface are removed by this process. This "color map" was then superimposed over a clear-filter image.
The origin of the color differences is not yet understood, but it may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or grain sizes making up the icy soil.
Wispy markings were seen on the trailing hemispheres of both Rhea and Dione in images taken by NASA's Voyager spacecraft, and were hypothesized by some researchers to be the result of material extruded onto the surface by ice volcanism. Cassini's earlier revelation of the braided fractures on Dione led to speculation that Rhea's wisps might also be created by fractures.
This view shows terrain on the trailing hemisphere of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 17, 2006, at a distance of approximately 245,000 kilometers (152,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 30 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (4,771 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.
Saturn's brightly sunlit moon Rhea commands the foreground in this image from Cassini. The planet's splendid rings are discernible in the background. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
The spacecraft was just above the ringplane when it acquired this image, and thus captured the darkened appearance of the dense B ring when viewed with sunlight filtered through the rings. From this perspective, bright areas in the rings are regions of low density, containing very small particles that effectively scatter light toward Cassini.
North on Rhea is up and rotated about 25 degrees to the left. This view shows principally the anti-Saturn hemisphere on Rhea. The right side of Rhea is overexposed.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 18, 2005, at a distance of approximately 540,000 kilometers (340,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 110 degrees. The 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 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.
The rings cannot hide the ragged, icy crescent of Rhea, here imaged in color by the Cassini spacecraft. The second-largest moon of Saturn shines brightly through gaps in the rings.
Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) lies beyond the dim, unlit side of the rings. A diffuse clump of material lies in the F ring, on the side nearest to Cassini.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view, which approximates the scene as it might appear to human eyes. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 1, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 118 degrees. Image scale is 7 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.
Rhea's distinctive bright and relatively fresh-rayed crater lies in stark contrast to the large, round basin which sits along the terminator (the boundary between day and night) in this unmagnified view.
Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is Saturn's second-largest moon.
North on Rhea is up and rotated about 15 degrees to the left. The sunlit terrain shown here is on the moon's leading hemisphere.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 31, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 52 degrees. The image scale is 10 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The first artificial satellite in the Saturn system, the Cassini spacecraft, returned images of the natural moons following a successful insertion into orbit. This is an unmagnified view of the moon Rhea.
With a diameter of 1,528 kilometers (950 miles) across, Rhea is Saturn's second largest moon. The Voyager spacecraft found that like Dione, Rhea has one of its hemispheres covered with bright, wispy streaks which may be water frost.
This view shows a heavily cratered surface, and thus it is most likely ancient. Many of the craters visible here have central peaks. Cassini soon will look for clues to help unlock the moon's geologic history. The spacecraft is slated to fly by Rhea at a distance of only 500 kilometers (311 miles) on Nov. 26, 2005.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 2, 2004, from a distance of about 990,000 kilometers (615,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase angle of about 109 degrees. The 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 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 night side of Rhea shines softly in reflected light from Saturn. A similar effect, called Earthshine, can often be seen dimly illuminating the dark side Earth's moon.
Background stars make short, dim trails across the black sky. The sunlit terrain on Rhea is so much brighter than the part lit by Saturn that the former is completely overexposed in this view, which took more than 30 seconds to acquire.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up and rotated 28 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 11, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 364,000 kilometers (226,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 154 degrees. Image scale is 4 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.
The Cassini spacecraft looks toward Rhea's cratered, icy landscape with the dark line of Saturn's ringplane and the planet's murky atmosphere as a background.
Rhea is Saturn's second-largest moon, at 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 17, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (770,000 miles) from Rhea. Image scale is 7 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 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 PIA10494: Icy Profile sur le site de la NASA.
Rhea enters the Cassini spacecraft's field of view and glides lazily across the scene as the spacecraft observes Saturn's restless atmosphere.
Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane. The rings form a dark line across center and cast shadows onto the northern half of this view. The A ring and B ring cast the darker shadows compared to the C ring and the Cassini division, which are less dense.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 13, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 4.1 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 24 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel on Saturn and 21 kilometers (13 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 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.
Scarred and battered Rhea fills the Cassini spacecraft's view. Notable here is the sharp relief of steep crater walls near the terminator.
Icy Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is Saturn's second-largest moon.
This view shows terrain on Rhea's trailing hemisphere. North is up and rotated 22 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 267,000 kilometers (166,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 59 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.
Just before Rhea slipped behind Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft captured the moon in its disappearing act.
Along with the partly obscured Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) are Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across), at right, and Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across), left of Tethys.
At the wavelength in which this image was taken, absorption of sunlight by methane gas in Saturn's atmosphere is strong, causing the planet to appear darker than at other wavelengths.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 4 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 9, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 890 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 44 degrees. Image scale is 162 kilometers (101 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 PIA09795: Obscure Moon sur le site de la NASA.
Rhea brushes the stormy face of Saturn, an airless ice orb against the feathery bands of a gas giant.
Saturn's unilluminated rings are seen at upper right. Rhea is the second largest of Saturn's moons at 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 3 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in wavelengths of polarized infrared light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 4, 2007. Cassini acquired the view at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and 679,000 kilometers (422,000 miles) from Rhea. Image scale is 137 kilometers (85 miles) per pixel on Saturn and about 80 kilometers (50 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 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 puts the enormous distances in the Saturn system in perspective with this view of Rhea and Prometheus.
Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) sits in the foreground, while Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) lingers barely visible near the rings about 400,000 kilometers (250,000 miles) beyond. Saturn's cloud tops are about 80,000 kilometers (50,000 miles) farther still.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 13, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 4.1 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 24 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel on Saturn and 21 kilometers (13 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 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 view of Saturn's moon Rhea includes two large and ancient impact basins and a more recent, bright ray crater.
The large basin above center is named Tirawa. This feature (and the similar-sized crater to its left) is overprinted by many other craters, meaning it is an extremely old feature that has collected other impacts over the eons.
For a high-resolution view of the bright ray crater, see PIA07764.
This bright ray crater appears to be a younger feature, as it possesses crisp edges, is not heavily overprinted by other craters, and the blanket of bright, fresh material thrown out by the impact is still visible.
Lit terrain seen here is on the moon's anti-Saturn side. North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is toward the top of the image. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 13, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 889,000 kilometers (552,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 31 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 PIA10405: Crater Comparison sur le site de la NASA.
Rhea has been heavily bombarded by impacts during its history. In this Cassini image the moon displays what may be a relatively fresh, bright, rayed crater near Rhea's eastern limb. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
This view is centered on the side of Rhea that faces away from Saturn as the moon orbits. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Nov. 10, 2004, at a distance of 3.6 million kilometers (2.2 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 86 degrees. North is up. The image scale is 21 kilometers (13 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.
Wispy markings reach out across Rhea's surface from its trailing hemisphere. The bright markings appear to be fractures, like those found on Dione.
This view looks toward the northern hemisphere on Rhea's trailing side. North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is up and rotated about 40 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 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 54 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.
Large and medium-sized impact basins on Rhea's trailing hemisphere are thrown into sharp relief by the grazing rays of the Sun. Bright, wispy features reach across the surface from the east.
This view shows roughly the same region as the color view PIA06578.
North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is up and rotated 12 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 21, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 783,000 kilometers (487,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 76 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/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This intense false-color view highlights and enhances color variations across the cratered and cracked surface of Saturn's moon Rhea.
To create the false-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 it may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or grain sizes making up the icy soil.
This view shows terrain on the trailing hemisphere of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The images were taken using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 18, 2006, at a distance of approximately 268,000 kilometers (166,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 115 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 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 trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon Rhea seen here in natural color, displays bright, wispy terrain that is similar in appearance to that of Dione, another one of Saturn's moon. At this distance however, the exact nature of these wispy features remains tantalizingly out of the reach of Cassini's cameras.
At this resolution, the wispy terrain on Rhea looks like a thin coating painted onto the moon's surface. Cassini images from December 2004 (see PIA06163) revealed that, when seen at moderate resolution, Dione's wispy terrain is comprised of many long, narrow and braided fractures.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 16, 2005, at a distance of approximately 496,500 kilometers (308,600 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 35 degrees. Resolution in the original image was about 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel. The image has been rotated so that north on Rhea is up. Contrast was enhanced and the image was 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 Cassini spacecraft surveys the stark beauty of Saturn's moon Rhea.
Rhea's north pole is up and tilted slightly away from Cassini in this view; the moon's south pole is in sunlight at bottom. Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across).
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 10, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 420,000 kilometers (261,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 53 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/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10429: Icy Desolation sur le site de la NASA.
This half-lit view beautifully captures the ponderously old and cratered surface of Saturn's icy moon Rhea. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
The sunlit terrain shown here is on the moon's leading hemisphere, on the side of Rhea that always faces toward Saturn. North is up and rotated 20 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 21, 2005, at a distance of approximately 922,000 kilometers (573,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 88 degrees. The 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Two Saturnian moons meet in the sky. Dione departs after crossing the face of Rhea for several minutes.
Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across), at right, has a notably smoother-looking surface than Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across), suggesting the former has been modified more recently.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 14, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Dione and 3.1 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Rhea. The Sun-moon-spacecraft, or phase, angle is about 134 degrees on both moons. Image scale is 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel on Dione and 18 kilometers (11 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 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 examines the desolate, cratered crescent of Rhea, a surface so heavily bombarded over the eons that new craters are virtually guaranteed to form on top of older ones. The large Tirawa impact basin is visible here.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 26, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 106 degrees. Image scale is 10 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.
A bright ray crater dominates this view of the leading hemisphere of Rhea, obtained at a time when the Sun was nearly aligned behind the Cassini spacecraft, or "opposition."
At opposition, shadows disappear, making topography appear less rugged. Consequently, in this view, topographic features such as crater walls are harder to see.
See PIA08402 for a close-up view of Rhea.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 5, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 869,000 kilometers (540,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 4 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 PIA10531: Opposing Rhea sur le site de la NASA.
This view looks toward Rhea's north polar region, where icy fractures slither away toward the south.
Lit terrain in this view is on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 4, 2006 at a distance of approximately 773,000 kilometers (480,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 105 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/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Densely cratered plains cover the ancient surface of Saturn's moon Rhea.
Following the Voyager spacecraft encounters with Saturn, cryovolcanism was suggested as a source for the wispy markings on both Rhea and Dione. Cassini has shown that Rhea's bright streaks are, like those on Dione, tectonic features. Planetary scientists now think it is unlikely that cryovolcanic activity has ever occurred on this moon.
This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 4, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (735,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 39 degrees. Image scale is 7 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/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09895: Ancient Plains of Rhea sur le site de la NASA.
Craters within craters cover the scarred face of Saturn's moon Rhea in this oblique, high-resolution view of terrain on the moon's western hemisphere.
A large, degraded crater lies at the center, filled with rolling mounds and many smaller craters. A couple of linear depressions are visible in the terrain (especially at lower right), possibly marking tectonic faults. The crater is about 90 kilometers-wide (56-miles) and is located at 8.5 degrees south latitude, 154.9 west longitude. The moon's icy regolith, or loose surface material, has likely been pummeled into a fine powder over the eons.
This is one of the highest-resolution images of Rhea's surface obtained during Cassini's close flyby on Nov. 26, 2005, during which the spacecraft swooped to within 500 kilometers (310 miles) of the large moon. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across and is Saturn's second largest moon, after planet-sized Titan.
The clear filter image was acquired with the wide-angle camera at an altitude of 620 kilometers (385 miles) above Rhea. Image scale is about 85 meters (280 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.Rhea drifts in front of Saturn. The battered, icy moon is seen here near the western limb of the planet's northern hemisphere.
This image was taken eight hours after PIA09841. The view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 17, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 576,000 kilometers (358,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 12 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.
Voir l'image PIA09844: Background Planet sur le site de la NASA.
The sunlight angle in this sharp view of Saturn's second-largest moon, Rhea, highlights the moon's crater-strewn surface. Cassini will fly past Rhea on Nov. 26, 2005, at a distance of only 500 kilometers (311 miles) and will obtain very high resolution images at that time. Rhea's diameter is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles).
This view shows mainly the hemisphere of Rhea that faces away from Saturn. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Nov. 1, 2004, at a distance of 1.6 million kilometers (994,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 102 degrees. North is up. The image scale is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel. The image has been slightly 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 Cassini spacecraft takes a northern view of Rhea, spying the large Tirawa impact basin left of center.
The moon's noted bright-rayed crater can be seen at bottom. See PIA08148 for a more southerly view of this same region.
Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 20, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (652,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 74 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/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09884: Soaring Over Rhea sur le site de la NASA.
This close view of Rhea prominently shows two large impact basins on the ancient and battered moon. The great age of these basins is suggested by the large number of smaller craters that are overprinted within them.
Ejecta from the bright, relatively young crater seen in PIA07609 spreads from the eastern limb.
Terrain visible in this view is on the side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) that faces away from Saturn. North on Rhea is up and tilted 30 degrees to the left.
See PIA07685 for a similar monochrome view.
This enhanced color view was created by combining images taken using filters sensitive to ultraviolet, visible green and infrared light. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 23, 2005, at a distance of approximately 341,000 kilometers (212,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 42 degrees. The 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.
Rhea is frozen in this Cassini portrait, captured just before it glided in front of Saturn's northern hemisphere. The wispy streaks on Rhea's trailing side are partly visible in the west.
This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 33 degrees. Image scale is 17 kilometers (10 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 PIA09794: Rhea Detached sur le site de la NASA.
This Cassini image shows the cratered surface of Saturn's moon Rhea, with impact craters near the terminator thrown into sharp relief. Rhea is Saturn's second-largest moon, at 1,528 kilometers (949 miles across).
This view shows the leading hemisphere on Rhea. 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 a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (950,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 70 degrees. Resolution in the image 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 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.
As the Cassini spacecraft slid between the Sun and Rhea, it caught this view of the moon at almost full opposition.
North on Rhea is up in this image, and, in the southern hemisphere, the faint outlines of a ray crater are visible. Lines, or rays, of debris from an impact streak outward from the crater on the left.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Rhea with a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 0.4 degrees.
With the sun almost directly behind Cassini, topographic details such as the crater are washed out by the sun's brightness. More contrast between these details is visible from greater phase angles (see see PIA07609).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 27, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.285 million kilometers (799,000 miles) from Rhea. 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 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 PIA10555: Washed Out Rhea sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft observes the wispy terrain that covers the trailing side of Rhea.
North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is up and rotated 27 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 22, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 22 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.
Voir l'image PIA09827: Trailing Rhea sur le site de la NASA.
The ancient and battered surface of Saturn's moon Rhea shows a notable dark swath of territory near the eastern limb in this image from Cassini.
This view shows principally the Saturn-facing hemisphere on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up and tilted 40 degrees to the right.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 7, 2005, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 30 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 giant Tirawa impact basin straddles the day and night boundary on Saturn's moon Rhea in this view from the Cassini spacecraft. The ancient basin is 5 kilometers (3 miles) deep in places, as measured in NASA Voyager images. The basin is 360 kilometers (220 miles) across.
The prominent bright splotch to the southeast of Tirawa is ejecta from a fairly fresh crater. This feature can be seen at much higher resolution in PIA06648. This view of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) reveals terrain slightly to the east of a similar Cassini view, released earlier (see PIA07539). The sunlit surface in this view is principally on the leading hemisphere of Rhea. North is up and rotated 13 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 13, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 50 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 12 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Rhea and Enceladus shared the sky just before the smaller moon passed behind its larger, cratered sibling.
This image is part of a "mutual event" series in which one moon passes close to or in front of another. These sequences help scientists refine the orbits of Saturn's moons.
Cratered Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across and presumed to be geologically dead. While much smaller, Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) is geologically active today.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 4, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Rhea and 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Enceladus. The view was obtained at a Sun-moon-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 142 degrees relative to both moons. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 11 kilometers (7 miles) on Enceladus.
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.
Features on the surface of Saturn's moon Rhea reveal clues about the moon's history. In this Cassini image, two large impact basins near center and bottom exhibit central peaks. The image shows largely the trailing hemisphere of Rhea. At right, some of the wispy markings that cover the moon's trailing hemisphere are visible. Rhea's diameter is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 9, 2004, at a distance of 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 62 degrees. The image scale is about 15 kilometers (9 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.
Cassini looks upward at the south polar region on Rhea during a recent distant encounter. Rhea's icy surface is so heavily saturated with impact craters that the moon's limb, or edge, has a rugged, bumpy appearance. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
The bright splotch seen here near the upper right is impact material (or ejecta) from a relatively fresh crater (see PIA06648 for another view of this bright feature).
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 14, 2005, at a distance of approximately 342,000 kilometers (212,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 36 degrees. The image was obtained using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 298 nanometers. The 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 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.
This close view of Rhea prominently shows two large impact basins on the ancient and battered moon. The great age of these basins is suggested by the large number of smaller craters that are overprinted within them.
Ejecta from the bright, relatively young crater seen in PIA07609 spreads from the eastern limb. Terrain visible in this view is on the side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) that faces away from Saturn. North on Rhea is up and tilted 30 degrees to the left.
See PIA07686 for a similar enhanced color view.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 23, 2005 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The image was acquired at a distance of approximately 341,000 kilometers (212,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 42 degrees. The 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.
The low illumination angle near the terminator makes visible the steep topography of craters on Rhea's battered surface.
This view is centered on 10 degrees north latitude, 128 degrees west longitude. North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, 949 miles across) is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 16, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 313,000 kilometers (195,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 128 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 PIA09799: Rhea's Pitted Profile sur le site de la NASA.
Two crescent moons dance around Saturn as far-off Dione slips behind its sibling moon Rhea. From Cassini's perspective, Rhea's bulk (1,528 kilometers, 949 miles wide) completely covered her smaller celestial companion Dione (1,126 kilometers, 700 miles wide) for about three minutes before the smaller moon re-emerged.
The images used for this movie sequence were taken over approximately 27 minutes as Cassini stared at Rhea. The images were aligned to keep Rhea close to the center of the scene. Additional frames were inserted among the 38 original Cassini images in order to smooth the appearance of Dione's movement -- a scheme called interpolation. For another eclipse movie showing these two moons, see PIA06199.
The clear-filter images in this movie were acquired with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Dec. 5, 2005, from a distance of 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Rhea and 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Dione. Image scale is about 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 16 kilometers (10 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.
Cassini looks down upon Rhea, whose cratered surface was already ancient before any complex life developed on Earth. The terrain seen here has probably changed little in the past billion years.
This view shows terrain on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 21, 2006 at a distance of approximately 94,000 kilometers (59,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 109 degrees. Image scale is 558 meters (1,832 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 large Tirawa impact basin on Saturn's moon Rhea is visible at the two o'clock position in this Cassini image. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
This view shows principally the trailing hemisphere on Rhea, and is centered on the moon's equator. North is up and tilted 25 degrees to the left.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 13, 2005, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The image was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 90 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 10 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.
This view of Saturn's icy moon Rhea shows hints of its heavily cratered surface, including a bright feature near the terminator (day-night boundary). Cassini was, at the time, speeding away from the Saturn system on its initial long, looping orbit.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 15, 2004, from a distance of about 5.1 million kilometers (3.2 million miles) from Rhea. The Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase angle of the image is 90 degrees. The image scale is 31 kilometers (19 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 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.
Looking closely at Saturn's moon Rhea during a somewhat distant flyby, Cassini provides this view of what appears to be a bright, rayed and therefore relatively young crater. This crater was also observed by Cassini at much lower resolution in the fall of 2004 and in spring of 2005. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
For comparison, viewing the same crater near the terminator (the line between day and night) would highlight the crater's topography (vertical relief), compared to its brightness, which is highlighted in this view where the Sun is at a higher angle.
North on Rhea is up and rotated about 15 degrees to the left. This view shows principally the leading hemisphere on Rhea.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 14, 2005, at a distance of approximately 247,000 kilometers (153,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase angle of 70 degrees. Resolution in the image 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 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.
This view of Saturn's second-largest moon, Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles, across), shows some of the large craters that cover its surface. There is a bright feature near the moon's right limb, possibly a large, rayed crater or bright icy material exposed by internal processes.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Sept. 26, 2004, at a distance of 7.1 million kilometers (4.4 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 75 degrees. The image scale is 43 kilometers (27 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 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.
Two frigid moons, Rhea and Enceladus, shine in reflected light from Saturn. In such low light and at great distance, Rhea's cratered surface looks deceptively smooth. Light from the distant Sun creates the bright crescent on each moon and scatters off the icy spray above the south pole of Enceladus.
Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across, and Enceladus is 505 kilometers (314 miles) across.
The image background appears generally brighter across its center due to the diffuse E ring, which is created by the jets of material from Enceladus.
The faint vertical banding in the image is due to "noise" in the spacecraft electronics.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 13, 2006 at a distance of approximately 4.1 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Enceladus and 4.5 million kilometers (2.8 million miles) from Rhea. The Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle is 159 degrees. Image scale is 24 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel on Enceladus and 27 kilometers (17 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 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 streaks adorn the face of densely cratered Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon.
The lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up and rotated five degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 756,000 kilometers (470,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 49 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/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Rhea shows off her bright, fresh-looking impact crater in this Cassini view taken during a close approach.
For a high-resolution view of this crater, taken during a much closer encounter, see PIA07764.
The view is toward the leading hemisphere on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 24, 2006 at a distance of approximately 343,000 kilometers (213,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 27 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.
Side-by-side natural color and false-color views highlight the wispy terrain on Rhea's trailing hemisphere.
The extreme false color image makes it clear that the wisps -- likely networks of fractures as on Dione -- cut across older, cratered terrain. In addition, a set of thin, north-south trending lineaments (also likely fractures) is visible on the left side of both views.
The natural color view was created by compositing images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters.
To create the false-color view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This "color map" was then superimposed over a clear-filter image that preserves the relative brightness across the body.
The combination of color map and brightness image shows how colors vary across the surface of Rhea. 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 surface material.
North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is up.
The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 17, 2007 at a distance of approximately 597,000 kilometers (371,000 miles) from Rhea. 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.
This Cassini image shows predominantly the impact-scarred leading hemisphere of Saturn's icy moon Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 12, 2004, at a distance of 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 30 degrees. The image scale is about 12 kilometers (7.5 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. For images visit the Cassini imaging team home page http://ciclops.org.
Wispy markings on Rhea reach across the moon's icy surface. The Tirawa impact basin is seen straddling the terminator at upper right. The crater is about 360 kilometers (220 miles) across.
This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 29, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 37 degrees. 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 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 PIA09809: Wisp-covered Rhea sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini caught this glimpse of Saturn's second largest moon, 1,528 kilometer (949 mile) wide Rhea on Aug. 16, 2004. Notable in the image is a brightening near the terminator.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera at a distance of 8.5 million kilometers (5.3 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 86 degrees. The image scale is 51 kilometers (32 miles) per pixel. The image has been enhanced and 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.
This view of the trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon Rhea shows the region's bright wispy markings, but also shows off the moon's craters in great detail. Of particular interest to imaging scientists is the distribution and orientation of the many craters with polygonal rims. These are craters with rough, angular shapes, rather than smooth, circular ones. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 16, 2005, at a distance of approximately 500,000 kilometers (311,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 35 degrees. (PIA06578 is a true color version of this image.) Resolution in the original image was about 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel. The image has been rotated so that north on Rhea is up. Contrast was enhanced and the image was 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.
Rhea displays a prominent scar in this view from Cassini. A large and ancient impact basin can be seen at upper right. The giant feature occurs within a terrain that appears rugged and which likely is saturated with other smaller craters.
Rhea is Saturn's second-largest moon at 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across. This view shows terrain on the moon's trailing hemisphere. North is up.
The image was taken in polarized ultraviolet light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 24, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 117 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 12 kilometers (7 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 acquired this detailed view of Rhea just before the moon slipped into an eclipse by Saturn's shadow.
During the eclipse, the wide-angle camera acquired support observations for Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) instrument. Such images help confirm CIRS' pointing on the sky as that instrument observed Rhea's infrared radiation in the absence of solar illumination.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is toward the top of the image and rotated 23 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 14, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 506,000 kilometers (315,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 32 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/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10451: Rhea Before the Eclipse sur le site de la NASA.
Rhea's bright ray crater features prominently in this southern view. The feature is surrounded by bright ejecta—material thrown outward by the impact that formed the crater.
The view looks toward high southern latitudes on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) from a perspective 49 degrees below the icy moon's equator. Rhea's south pole is at bottom center.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 29, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 413,000 kilometers (257,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 44 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 PIA10464: Bright Rays sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft surveys the south polar region of icy Rhea.
This is a similar view to PIA07572. This view is a bit farther south and has slightly different solar illumination.
Cassini flybys have shown that Rhea is not differentiated, or separated into distinct layers; instead, it appears to be a mixture of approximately 75 percent ices and 25 percent rock and metal.
Saturn's second-largest moon, Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) wide.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 12, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 345,000 kilometers (214,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 73 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 PIA09898: South on Rhea sur le site de la NASA.
The story of the solar system is written upon the faces of its many worlds, such as Saturn's icy moon Rhea, seen here in an image from Cassini. The moon's many impact craters attest to its violent beginnings and more than four billion years of subsequent history. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
Most moons in the outer solar system are icy, in contrast to the rocky inner planets and Earth's moon. When the planets and their moons first formed around our Sun, conditions were cold enough at Saturn's distance that ices could condense to form solid bodies like Rhea. Since its formation, Rhea has been battered by the leftover debris of planet building, although at a much lower rate for the past 3.8 billion years or so.
North on Rhea is up and rotated about 20 degrees to the left. This view shows principally the leading hemisphere on Rhea.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 5, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 78 degrees. The 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 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.
Cassini caught a hint of Rhea's heavily cratered surface as it sped rapidly away from the moon on its first orbit of Saturn. There is a noticeable brightening near the left limb of the icy moon. Cassini will have its first flyby of Rhea in November 2005.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 20, 2004, from a distance of 5.9 million kilometers (3.6 million miles) from Rhea, and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase angle of 91 degrees. The image scale is 35 kilometers (22 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.
Gray and barren Rhea drifts beneath Saturn's more colorful rings. Bright wispy markings on the trailing hemisphere of Rhea are just visible curling along the western limb.
Above the icy moon, Saturn's shadow darkens the ringplane.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this color image, which approximates what the human eye might see. The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Oct. 13, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 100 degrees. North on Rhea is up. The image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
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 Rhea is an alien ice world, but in this frame-filling view it is vaguely familiar. Here, Rhea's cratered surface looks in some ways similar to our own Moon, or the planet Mercury. But make no mistake -- Rhea's icy exterior would quickly melt if this moon were brought as close to the Sun as Mercury. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
Instead, Rhea preserves a record of impacts at its post in the outer solar system. The large impact crater at the center left (near the terminator or boundary between day and night), called Izanagi, is just one of the numerous large impact basins on Rhea.
This view shows principally Rhea's southern polar region, centered on 58 degrees South, 265 degrees West.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 255,000 kilometers (158,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 62 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.
Bright, wispy markings cover the trailing hemisphere of Rhea. The features are thought to be similar in nature to the bright, icy canyons seen on Dione (see PIA06162).
North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, 949 miles across) is up and rotated 17 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 22, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 42 degrees. Image scale is 7 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.
In a silent orbital ballet, Saturn's crater-covered moon Rhea slips between the moons Mimas and Enceladus. The dark sides of Enceladus (bottom) and Mimas (top) are dimly illuminated by reflected light from Saturn.
Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across, Mimas is 397 kilometers (247 miles) across, and Enceladus is 505 kilometers (314 miles) across.
The movie was created using 59 clear-filter images taken over a period of about 40 minutes. The images were acquired by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 27, 2006, at a mean distance of approximately 3 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Rhea, 3.5 million kilometers (2.2 million miles) from Mimas, and 3.7 million kilometers (2.3 million miles) from Enceladus. The image scale is approximately 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel on Rhea, 21 kilometers (13 miles) per pixel on Mimas, and 22 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel on Enceladus.
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 PIA07804: The Silent Spheres sur le site de la NASA.
Rhea sports an immense impact scar on its leading hemisphere, like several other major Saturnian moons. The impact basin, seen above center on the day-night dividing line, or terminator, is named Tirawa, and is about 360 kilometers (220 miles) across.
North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 1, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 55 degrees. Image scale is 10 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.
The icy moon Rhea, Saturn's second largest satellite, hangs before Cassini in this narrow angle camera image, showing just a hint of its crater-pocked surface. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (950 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light on Aug. 25, 2004, at a distance of 8.8 million kilometers (5.5 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 84 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.
The Cassini spacecraft looks down onto middle northern latitudes on Rhea. The large Tirawa basin is seen on the terminator at right.
Lit terrain seen here is primarily on the trailing side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 17, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 539,000 kilometers (335,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 79 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.
Voir l'image PIA09819: North on Rhea sur le site de la NASA.
Rhea's surface gains some depth in this stereo image, or anaglyph, which features the bright and geologically young-looking rayed crater on the moon's leading hemisphere. The view was created from images taken during Cassini's close encounter with Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) on Aug. 30, 2007.
The crater is 48 kilometers (30 miles) wide, and its rays extend several hundred kilometers outward. The rim of this crater is quite sharply defined, and there are few small craters overprinted onto it. These characteristics, along with the brightness of the crater and its rays are indicative of a feature formed relatively recently in geologic history.
The hummocky floor of the crater possesses a central peak and clusters of small craters. The little craters may be secondary impact sites, formed by ejecta from the primary impact that landed in the crater, or they could have been formed by material that had broken off of the body that struck Rhea.
For an even higher resolution view of this feature, see PIA07764.
This stereo image is a mosaic consisting of seven Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera images. The view is an orthographic projection centered on 12 degrees south latitude, 112 degrees west longitude and has a resolution of 45 meters (148 feet) per pixel. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer looking through a telescope. North is up.
The clear filter images for this stereo image were taken from distances ranging from about 17,000 kilometers (10,600 miles, for the red-colored image) to 7,500 kilometers (4,700 miles, for the blue/green-colored image) from 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.
This false-color picture of Saturn's moon Rhea from Cassini enhances slight differences in natural color across the moon's face. The extreme north and south latitudes have a notable difference in hue compared to the mid-latitudes.
This view of Rhea is a composite of images taken using filters sensitive to green (centered at 568 nanometers) and infrared light (two infrared filters, centered at 752 and 930 nanometers) and has been processed to accentuate subtle color differences.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle-camera on Feb. 18, 2005, at a distance of approximately 890,000 kilometers (553,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 116 degrees. The 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 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's low angle near the terminator highlights the topography of craters within Rhea's wispy terrain.
A similar view, PIA06578, shows this region from a slightly different perspective and in natural color.
This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is toward the top of the image.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 10, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 758,000 kilometers (471,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 51 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 PIA10474: Rhea's Roughness sur le site de la NASA.
Impact-battered Rhea exhibits a mottled appearance in this image from the Cassini spacecraft. On an ancient surface such as this, large impact basins are often peppered with many smaller craters. The image shows principally the trailing hemisphere of this icy moon, Saturn's second largest. Rhea's diameter is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 9, 2004, at a distance of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 60 degrees. The image scale is about 14 kilometers (9 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.
The Cassini spacecraft examines the icy, crater-saturated face of Rhea.
This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 21, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 890,000 kilometers (553,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 16 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/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09825: Icy Moonlight sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's moon Rhea shows off the moon equivalent of a black eye -- a bright, rayed crater near its eastern limb.
Rhea is about half the size of Earth's moon. At 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across, it is the second-largest moon orbiting Saturn.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 24, 2004, at a distance of about 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 40 degrees. The image scale is approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel. Cassini will image this hemisphere of Rhea again in mid-January 2005, just after the Huygens probe landing on Titan - with approximately 1-kilometer (0.6-mile) 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 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.
Rhea transits the banded clouds of the Ringed Planet. The edge-on rings cast curved shadows onto Saturn's northern hemisphere. More subtle than the ring shadows, the zonal jet streams of Saturn stripe its globe.
Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across. Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) sits on the far side of the ringplane, near right.
The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 13, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 4.1 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 240 kilometers (149 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.
Saturn's moon Rhea displays two large impact features here, along the terminator (the boundary between day and night), plus a superb rayed crater to the east. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
The northern basin, named Tirawa, was discovered in Voyager images. This ancient impact site is approximately 360 kilometers (220 miles) across. Another, perhaps larger basin sits to the south of Tirawa and is partly in shadow.
This view shows principally the leading hemisphere on Rhea; north is up and rotated about 10 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 2, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 47 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 11 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft obtained this view of a bright ray crater on the southern portions of Rhea's leading hemisphere.
The impact that produced the bright rays seen here excavated material from below the surface which is brighter than the surrounding terrain on which it fell.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 26, 2008 at a distance of approximately 463,000 kilometers (288,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 58 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/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10533: Icy Impact sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft views Rhea and the bright, rayed crater that is likely one of the younger features on the moon's surface. The impact excavated fresh material from beneath the ground, which spread out in this pattern as it fell back to Rhea.
This view, centered on 12 degrees south latitude, 133 degrees west longitude, predominately encompasses the anti-Saturn side on Rhea's leading hemisphere. North is up and rotated 28 degrees to the right. Icy Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 17, 2008 using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized green light centered at 617 and 568 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 538,000 kilometers (334,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 9 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.
Voir l'image PIA09841: The Rays of Rhea sur le site de la NASA.
After nearly three years at Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft continues to observe the planet's retinue of icy moons, seeing exciting details with every orbit. Rhea's cratered face attests to its great age, while its bright wisps hint at tectonic activity in the past.
This view looks toward the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere. North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is up and rotated about 8 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 11, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 879,000 kilometers (546,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 43 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/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Rhea's devastated surface creates a jagged terminator as mountains and crater rims break-up the line between day and night. Terrain on Rhea's night side is dimly lit by reflected light from Saturn.
The view looks toward the southern hemisphere on the moon's trailing side. North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is up.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 22, 2006 at a distance of approximately 263,000 kilometers (164,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 138 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (about 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.
Click on the image for movie of
Enceladus Transits Rhea
The bright crescent of Saturn's moon Enceladus slides past distant Rhea in this mutual event, or occultation, movie from Cassini.
The movie was created from 40 original images taken over the course of about 20 minutes as the spacecraft's narrow angle camera remained pointed toward Enceladus. Additional frames were inserted between the 40 Cassini images to smooth the appearance of the moons' movement -- a scheme called interpolation.
As Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) approaches Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across), the shadow of Saturn can be seen, projected onto the unlit side of its incredible rings.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 2, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Rhea and 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Enceladus. Image scale is 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Enceladus.
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 view of Saturn's moon Rhea shows the tremendous bright splat that coats much of the moon's leading hemisphere. The bright feature may be impact-related and is visible in other Cassini images of Rhea (see PIA07539). Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
North on Rhea is up in this view.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 25, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of less than one degree. Resolution in the original image was 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.
Voir l'image PIA07554: Rhea's Bright Blemish sur le site de la NASA.
Two large craters lie along the boundary between day and night on Saturn's moon Rhea. The bright spots in the middle of each crater may be prominent central peaks. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
This view shows principally the trailing hemisphere on Rhea. The image has been rotated so that north on Rhea is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 121 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 11 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.
Saturn's moon Rhea displays one of its more prominent features here: a bright, rayed crater which was seen at much higher resolution in an image taken two weeks earlier. Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
North on Rhea is up and rotated about 65 degrees to the left. This view shows principally the anti-Saturn hemisphere on Rhea.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 27, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 42 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 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.
Rhea's crater-saturated surface shows a large bright blotch, which was likely created when a geologically recent impact sprayed bright, fresh ice ejecta over the moon's surface.
The rim of the great Tirawa impact basin can be seen near the top of the image. The giant feature is approximately 360 kilometers (220 miles) across.
This equatorial view captures Rhea's leading hemisphere. North is up and rotated 40 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 28, 2006 at a distance of approximately 481,000 kilometers (299,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 23 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.
Like the rest of Rhea's surface, the southern polar region of this Saturn moon has been extensively re-worked by cratering over the eons. This close-up shows that most sizeable craters have smaller, younger impact sites within them. Near the left lies an intriguing gash.
The largest well-defined crater visible here is an oval-shaped impact toward the upper right. The crater is 115 by 91 kilometers (71 by 57 miles) in size.
Cassini acquired this view during a distant flyby of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) on July 14, 2005.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 239,000 kilometers (149,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 56 degrees. The image was obtained using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Enceladus briefly passes behind the crescent of Rhea in these images, which are part of a "mutual event" sequence taken by Cassini. These sequences help scientists refine our understanding of the orbits of Saturn's moons.
The images were taken one minute apart as smaller Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) darted behind Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) as seen from the Cassini spacecraft's point of view.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 14, 2006, at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Rhea and 4.1 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Enceladus. The image scale is 20 kilometers (13 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 24 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel on Enceladus.
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.
