Saturn's moon Telesto is visible below and to the left of center in this image from the Cassini spacecraft.
Telesto (24 kilometers, or 15 miles across) shares the orbit of Saturn's moon Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across), leading the larger moon in its path by 60 degrees. Similarly sized Calypso (22 kilometers, or 14 miles across) trails Tethys by the same amount. These positions, called Lagrange points, are dynamically stable. In being co-orbital moons of Tethys, Telesto and Calypso are like the Trojan moons of Jupiter, which occupy Lagrange points and orbit 60 degrees ahead and behind of Jupiter. The Saturnian moon Dione also has companion moons: Helene, which leads Dione in its orbit, and the Cassini-discovered trailing Lagrange moon, Polydeuces.
North on Saturn is to the upper left in this view. The image was taken at a Sun-Telesto-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 90 degrees. Telesto is seen here at a phase similar to that of a first-quarter moon, where only half of the visible hemisphere is illuminated by sunlight.
The planet's night side is at the upper right. The rings stretch across the top of the image and are overexposed in this view.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 18, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.7 million kilometers (2.3 million miles) from Telesto. Resolution in the image is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel. Telesto has been brightened 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.
These views show surface features and color variation on the Trojan moon Telesto. The smooth surface of this moon suggests that, like Pandora, it is covered with a mantle of fine, dust-sized icy material.
The monochrome image was taken in visible light (see PIA07696). 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 may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil.
Tiny Telesto is a mere 24 kilometers (15 miles) wide.
The image was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 25, 2005 at a distance of approximately 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) from Telesto and at a Sun-Telesto-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 58 degrees. Image scale is 118 meters (387 feet) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The blob of light seen here is Saturn's moon Telesto, which shares its orbital path with the much larger moon Tethys. Telesto is 24 kilometers (15 miles) across.
Although this view may hint at a flattened, potato-like shape for Telesto (a common shape for Saturn's smaller moons), no features on the moon's surface can be resolved here.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 768,000 kilometers (477,000 miles) from Telesto and at a Sun-Telesto-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 37 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel. The image has been contrast-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 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.
These views show surface features and color variation on the Trojan moon Telesto. The smooth surface of this moon suggests that, like Pandora, it is covered with a mantle of fine, dust-sized icy material.
The monochrome image was taken in visible light. To create the false-color view (see PIA07697), ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This "color map" was then superposed over a clear-filter image. The origin of the color differences is not yet understood, but may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil.
Tiny Telesto is a mere 24 kilometers (15 miles) wide.
The image was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 25, 2005 at a distance of approximately 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) from Telesto and at a Sun-Telesto-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 58 degrees. Image scale is 118 meters (387 feet) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This is Cassini's best look yet at the Trojan moon Telesto (24 kilometers, or 15 miles across), which orbits Saturn about 60 degrees ahead of the much larger Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). Calypso (22 kilometers, or 14 miles across, and not seen here) is the other Tethys Trojan, and trails the larger moon by 60 degrees. Trojan moons are found near gravitationally stable points ahead or behind a larger moon.
Cassini is able to partly resolve Telesto's shape in this view, but surface features are too small to be visible from this distance.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 533,000 kilometers (331,000 miles) from Telesto. The image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel. This view of Telesto has been magnified by a factor of three and sharpened 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 passed within a cosmic stone's throw of Telesto in October, 2005 capturing this shot of the tiny Trojan moon.
Telesto (24 kilometers, or 15 miles across) appears to be mantled in fine, icy material, although a few craters and some outcrops and/or large boulders are visible. Its smooth surface does not appear to retain the record of intense cratering that most of Saturn's other moons possess.
The image was taken in polarized green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2005, at a distance of approximately 14,500 kilometers (9,000 miles) from Telesto. The image scale is 86 meters (283 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.