This richly textured look at Saturn's moon Tethys shows the huge crater Odysseus and its central mountain in relief, as well as many smaller impact sites. Vertical relief on solid solar system bodies is often most easily visible near the terminator (the line between day and night). Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
North on Tethys is up in this view. The lit portion of Tethys seen here is on the moon's leading hemisphere as it orbits Saturn.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 27, 2005, at a distance of approximately 490,000 kilometers (304,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 117 degrees. The image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
Voir l'image PIA07557: Texture of Tethys sur le site de la NASA.
The Sun's rays strike the terrains near the terminator on Tethys at low angles, throwing features there into sharp relief. The cluster of peaks at the center of the crater Odysseus (450 kilometers, or 280 miles across) is particularly bold. Melanthius crater is seen here at bottom.
This view shows the anti-Saturn hemisphere on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). North is up and rotated 20 degrees to the left. Saturn's rings cut across the upper left portion of the scene.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Oct. 13, 2005 at a distance of approximately 646,000 kilometers (401,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 109 degrees. The image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.Ithaca Chasma rips across Tethys from north to south near the center of this view. The moon's western limb is flattened, indicating the rim of the giant impact basin Odysseus.
The dark, east-west trending band often observed in this region (see PIA07571) is just visible here, but its contrast is reversed at these short, ultraviolet wavelengths -- it is bright against the already bright terrain.
North on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) is up and rotated 24 degrees to the left. This view looks toward the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 27, 2007 using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of light centered at 298 and 338 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 267,000 kilometers (166,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 13 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (5,236 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.
Cassini offers this lovely comparison between two of Saturn's satellites, Dione and Tethys, which are similar in size but have very different surfaces.
Extensive systems of bright fractures carve the surface of Dione (1,118 kilometers, or 695 miles across). The double-pronged feature Carthage Linea points toward the crater Turnus at the nine o'clock position near the terminator, and Palatine Linea runs toward the moon's bottom limb near the five o'clock position.
In contrast, the surface of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) appears brighter and more heavily cratered. The large crater Penelope is near the eastern limb. The huge rift zone Ithaca Chasma, which is 3 to 5 kilometers (2 to 3 miles) deep and extends for about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from north to south across Tethys, is hidden in shadow just beyond the terminator. For comparison, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) deep, and about 450 kilometers (280 miles) long.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 7, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (908,000 miles) from Tethys and 1.6 million kilometers (994,000 miles) from Dione. The image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel on Tethys, and 10 kilometers (6 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 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 profile of Ithaca Chasma forms a great scar in the icy crescent of Tethys. The chasm stretches more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) over Tethys' surface, from north to south.
Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) wide.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 25, 2005 at a distance of approximately 313,000 kilometers (195,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 151 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel. North on Tethys is up in this view.
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.
Ithaca Chasma rips across the cratered surface of Tethys, creating a scar more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) long, from north to south.
Cassini got a closer look at this ancient rift during a Sept. 2005 flyby of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). See PIA07734 for a high-resolution view of the chasm.
This view shows the Saturn-facing side of Tethys. North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 21, 2006 at a distance of approximately 715,000 kilometers (444,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 48 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The dramatic Ithaca Chasma carves an enormous gash for more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) across Saturn's moon Tethys. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across. Stretching across the top of this view are the B and A rings, separated by the Cassini Division.
Ithaca Chasma is on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere. North on Tethys is up and rotated 15 degrees to the left in this view.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 24, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 87 degrees. The image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging 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.
Dark shadows are an ever-present part of Saturn's already twilit world, where the Sun's rays are a hundred times more feeble than at Earth.
Here, the rings cast their silhouette upon the planet, which reciprocates with its own shade upon the rings at upper right. The moon Tethys also casts a dark spot onto Saturn's clouds.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 21 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 25, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 728 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 94 kilometers (58 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 PIA09870: Twilight Realm sur le site de la NASA.
The cold, cratered landscape of Saturn's moon Tethys shines in stark relief in this crescent view.
Aside from its obvious aesthetic beauty, this particular Cassini mosaic was obtained mainly to understand important details about how the surface of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) reflects light at high phase angles (the sun-Tethys-spacecraft viewing angle). The beautiful interplay of light with surface topographic features is an important factor in this regard. The surface is heavily cratered, and at this oblique angle the craters give the surface a highly scalloped appearance.
Unlike some high-resolution crescent views of Saturn's moons, this image truly gives Tethys the appearance of being composed of ice and frost. There appear to be numerous sun glints sparkling across the surface. Some of these might be specular (or mirror-like) reflections off of exposed walls of solid ice inside craters, or they might be uniformly large, frosty or icy-particle covered facets of topography that are so oriented as to give exceptionally bright but diffuse reflections.
The shadows cast by most craters in the scene are not dark, but rather, they are illuminated by light bouncing off of their sunlit walls and those of other craters. This light, which has been scattered multiple times, makes visible some details along the shadowed walls and floors of craters that would not otherwise be visible in this viewing geometry.
This mosaic was assembled from four clear filter, narrow-angle camera images, with low resolution, wide-angle camera data filling a small gap in coverage. The view is an orthographic projection and has a resolution of 211 meters (692 feet) per pixel. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer looking through a telescope. North is up.
The view was obtained by the Cassini spacecraft on June 29, 2007, from a distance of approximately 38,000 kilometers (24,000 miles) and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 152 degrees.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging 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 captures this dual portrait of an apparently dead moon and one that is very much alive. Tethys, in the foreground, shows no signs of recent geologic activity. Enceladus, however, is covered in fractures and faults -- near its south pole in particular -- and spews icy particles into space from active vents.
Tethys' giant crater Odysseus lurks in the dark just west of the terminator. North on the moons is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 29, 2005 at a distance of approximately 970,000 kilometers (600,000 miles) from Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 122 degrees. Cassini was then 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across). Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Tethys (at left) and 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Enceladus (at right).
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 into the 245-kilometer (150-mile) wide crater Melanthius in this view of the southern terrain on Tethys. The crater possesses a prominent cluster of peaks in its center which are relics of its formation.
Notable here is a distinct boundary in crater abundance -- the cratering density is much higher in the farthest western terrain (left side of the image) than elsewhere.
North on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) is up and rotated 45 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 120,000 kilometers (75,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 29 degrees. Image scale is 715 meters (2,345 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 northern polar region of Saturn's moon Tethys seen in this Cassini flyby image is a ponderously ancient surface.
Above the prominent peaked crater Telemachus are the remnants of a very old crater (at the 10 o'clock position relative to Telemachus) named Teiresias. The ancient impact site is so badly overprinted and eroded by impact weathering and degradation that all that remains is a circular pattern of hummocks that mark where the old crater rim existed.
This view is centered on terrain at approximately 1.2 degrees south latitude and 342 degrees west longitude on Tethys. The view is rotated so that north is about 40 degrees to the right.
This clear filter view was taken during Cassini's close approach to Tethys on Sept. 24, 2005. The image was acquired using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 69,200 kilometers (43,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 21 degrees. Image scale is 410 meters (1,350 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
This dazzling view looks beyond gigantic storms near Saturn's south pole to the small but clear disc of Tethys (1,060 kilometers, or 659 miles, across). Clouds and ribbons of gas swirl about in the planet's atmosphere in the foreground, while a tremendous chasm is visible on the icy moon.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 18, 2004, at a distance of 3.9 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 61 degrees. The view is in wavelengths of visible red light centered at 619 nanometers. The image scale is 23 kilometers (14 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.
Saturn's expansive rings separate the moon's Tethys (at the top) from Dione (at the bottom). Even in this distant view, it is easy to see that the moons' surfaces, and likely their evolutionary histories, are very different.
Both moons are on the far side of the rings in this scene, which shows their Saturn-facing hemispheres (terrain centered on 0 degrees longitude). The dark shadow across the rings is cast by Saturn's southern hemisphere.
The diameter of Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) and the diameter of Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles).
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 12, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel on the two moons.
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.
Having now passed closer to Tethys than the Voyager 2 spacecraft, Cassini has returned the best-ever natural color view of this icy Saturnian moon.
As seen here, the battered surface of Tethys (1,060 kilometers, or 659 miles across) has a neutral hue. The image here is a mosaic of two footprints. Three images taken in the red, green and blue filters were taken to form a natural color composite. The result reveals a world nearly saturated with craters - many small craters lie on top of older, larger ones, suggesting an ancient surface. At the top and along the boundary between day and night, the moon's terrain has a grooved appearance.
This moon is known to have a density very close to that of water, indicating it is likely composed mainly of water ice. Its frozen mysteries await Cassini's planned close flyby in September 2005.
The view shows primarily the trailing hemisphere of Tethys, which is the side opposite the moon's direction of motion in its orbit. The image has been rotated so that north on Tethys is up.
The images comprising this color view were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 28, 2004, at a distance of about 256,000 kilometers (159,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 50 degrees. The image scale is 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the 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.
Quiet and cold, a crescent Tethys floats above the nearly edge-on rings of Saturn. The only surface features visible on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) from this distance are a few impact craters.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 22, 2006, at a distance of approximately 3 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 115 degrees. The image scale is 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging 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 eastern rim of the large crater Odysseus is visible along the terminator in this image of Saturn's moon Tethys. This enormous impact feature is the largest on Tethys, at approximately 450 kilometers (280 miles) across. The shadowy rim of another smaller crater can be seen at the bottom. Tethys is 1,060 kilometers (659 miles) across.
This Cassini view shows principally the leading hemisphere of Tethys. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 18, 2004, at a distance of 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 94 degrees. The image scale is about 10 kilometers (6 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.
Tethys sports an enormous impact basin, Odysseus. The impact basin is 450-kilometers (280-miles) wide and contains a central complex of mountains.
See PIA07693 for a close-up view of Odysseus.
Lit terrain seen here is on leading hemisphere of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, 660 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 31, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 717,000 kilometers (446,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 59 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/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10420: Odysseus the Great sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft looks down onto high northern latitudes on Tethys, spying the enormous impact basin Odysseus.
Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn side of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). North is towards the top of the image.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 11, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 765,000 kilometers (475,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 97 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 PIA09878: Odysseus in the Light sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft provides a stunning view of the Odysseus impact basin on Tethys. The enormous basin is 450 kilometers (280 miles) wide.
The medium-sized crater Melanthius is seen along the terminator at lower left.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 21, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 211,000 kilometers (131,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 46 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Around the equator on its leading side, Tethys wears a band of slightly darker surface material. Cassini imaging scientists suspect that the darkened region may represent an area of less contaminated ice with differently sized grains than the material at higher latitudes on either side of the band.
Lit terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing side of Tethys (1071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). North is up. Part of the great canyon system Ithaca Chasma can be seen near the eastern limb in this frame-filling view.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 30, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 186,000 kilometers (116,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 62 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Tethys' dark equatorial band is seen in natural color on the moon's leading hemisphere. The largest impact basin on Tethys, Odysseus (400 kilometers, or 250 miles, across), appears on the left.
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 Oct. 27, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.203 million kilometers (747,500 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 10 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 PIA10538: Tethys' Subtle Hues sur le site de la NASA.
Powerful forces ripped apart the surface of Tethys at some time in the deep past, creating the incredible canyon system of Ithaca Chasma. This view shows nearly the full extent of Ithaca Chasma, which slices across more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of the moon's icy surface.
The canyons are peppered with many impact craters, which obliterate the older tectonic features and attest to the rift's great age. (See PIA07734 for a close-up view of a section of Ithaca Chasma.)
This view is centered on 30 degrees north latitude, 350 degrees west longitude, on the Saturn-facing side of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles across). North is toward the top and rotated 9 degrees to the right. The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 28, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 163,000 kilometers (101,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 36 degrees. Image scale is 971 meters (3,186 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.
Voir l'image PIA10460: Ancient Rift sur le site de la NASA.
The profile of the 450-kilometer-wide (280-mile) crater Odysseus makes this image look as if someone sliced off a chunk of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). According to measurements made in Voyager images, the crater rim rises to about 5 kilometers (3 miles) above the surrounding terrain.
This view shows territory eastward of a previously released Cassini view that looked more directly into the giant impact basin (see PIA07557). The moon's equatorial dark band can be seen here as well.
This view shows principally the southern leading hemisphere of Tethys. North is up and rotated 10 degrees to the left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 31, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 18 degrees. The image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging 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.
From a highly inclined orbit, the Cassini spacecraft looks toward far northern latitudes on Tethys.
Here, the spacecraft was above a position about 45 degrees north of the moon's equator. This vantage point afforded a view of the moon's three most recognizable features: the Ithaca Chasma canyon system (at lower right), Odysseus crater (at upper left) and the equatorial band of darker terrain (at lower left).
Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 29, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 991,000 kilometers (616,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 73 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 PIA09915: Fortunate View sur le site de la NASA.
This low resolution view of Tethys provides scientists with useful information about the moon's surface properties, regardless of the image's small size.
The view, which was taken using an ultraviolet spectral filter, demonstrates that the eastern terrain seen here is less reflective than the west at the short wavelengths of light sampled here. This dramatic difference in brightness is not visible in images taken through other, longer wavelength filters from similar viewing geometries.
Scientists use images taken at various wavelengths, and at different viewing and lighting angles, to tease out details about the surfaces of Saturn's moons.
This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere on the Saturn-facing side of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). North is up. Ithaca Chasma is seen here at left.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 26, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (972,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 16 degrees. Image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09785: Ultraviolet Revelation sur le site de la NASA.
With just a bit of detail visible on its lit hemisphere, Tethys was imaged by Cassini on July 20, 2004. A round feature, likely a large crater, can be seen near the boundary where day and night meet, at the bottom of the image. Dark markings are visible near the top.
The image was taken in visible light, with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera from a distance of 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) from Tethys, and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase angle of 92 degrees. The image scale is 37 kilometers (23 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.
This Cassini spacecraft view looks almost directly at the south pole of Tethys. The large crater Melanthius is seen above center.
Tethys is 1,062 kilometers (660 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 18, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 357,000 kilometers (222,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 72 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 PIA10412: On the South Side sur le site de la NASA.
This Cassini spacecraft image provides a view of the southern portion of Tethys' trailing hemisphere.
Prominent features include the huge canyon, Ithaca Chasma, approximately centered in this view, as well as Demodocus and Telemus, large basins just to the right of the rift.
Features on Tethys are named for characters in Homer's Odyssey.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 10, 2008 at a distance of approximately 417,000 kilometers (259,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 55 degrees. Image scale is 2 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 PIA10527: Icy Old Moon sur le site de la NASA.
The pockmarked crescent of Tethys displays slightly darker terrain in a band at its equator. The rim of the great crater Odysseus lurks on the terminator.
Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 29, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 56,000 kilometers (35,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 105 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.
Ithaca Chasma is one of the two most prominent features on Saturn's moon Tethys; the other is the gigantic crater Odysseus. Ithaca Chasma is visible near the moon's lower right limb in this image, which does not reveal the branching canyon's full extent. Tethys is 1,060 kilometers (659 miles) across.
Discovered in NASA Voyager images, the chasm is 100 kilometers (60 miles) across on average, and is 4 kilometers (2 miles) deep in places. It stretches more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) over Tethys' surface, from north to south.
This view is roughly centered on the leading hemisphere of Tethys. The image has been rotated so that north on Tethys is up.
This view was obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 17, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (621,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 110 degrees. A spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers was used to capture the image. Resolution in the original image was about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) per pixel. 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 enormous impact basin Odysseus sits on the eastern limb of icy Tethys.
This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles across). North is toward the top of the picture.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 14, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (714,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 26 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 PIA09903: Impact on the Ice sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini offers up this nice view of the craters Odysseus (at the top) and Melanthius (at the bottom) on Saturn's moon Tethys. Melanthius appears to have an elongated mountain range, rather than a single central peak, at its center.
This is the trailing hemisphere of Tethys, being centered on terrain at roughly 270 degrees longitude. North on Tethys is up. The diameter of Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles).
This image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 20, 2005, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. This view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 50 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's icy moon Tethys displays a very old impact basin here, just southeast of its giant canyon system, Ithaca Chasma. The large crater has been degraded, or softened, by time and a more recent impact has formed a smaller crater near its southern edge. This large basin was first seen in images from the NASA Voyager mission. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
A sharper, presumably younger crater called Penelope lies near the eastern limb, at the 3 o'clock position. This view shows principally the trailing hemisphere on Tethys. North is directly up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (600,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 31 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 6 kilometers (4 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.
Weak sunlight illuminates Saturn's large, icy moon Tethys and its giant crater Odysseus.
At the orbit of Saturn the Sun's light is between 80 and 100 times fainter than at Earth, depending on where the planet is in its eccentric (out of round) orbit, making high noon on Tethys like twilight on Earth.
This view looks toward the northern hemisphere of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles across) on the moon's anti-Saturn side. North is up and rotated 10 degrees to the right.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 21, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 770,000 kilometers (479,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 50 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 PIA10438: Cold Sunshine sur le site de la NASA.
This color view shows two of the largest craters on Saturn's icy moon Tethys: Odysseus in the northern hemisphere and Melanthius in the south. The moon's surface grows notably darker northward of the equator.
The horizontal stripes above the moon are the rings.
The view shows the side of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across), which always faces away from Saturn.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were composited to create this color view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 11, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Tethys. The image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
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.
Tethys appears here, against a background of star trails, in a view acquired as the icy moon exited Saturn's shadow. Tethys is illuminated in this view by two main sources: reflected "ringshine" and refracted sunlight passing through the edge of Saturn's atmosphere.
An observer viewing Saturn from the moon's surface would see the planet's southern hemisphere aglow with dimly reflected sunlight bouncing off the rings, called ringshine. They would also witness the beginning of an orbital sunrise.
The Cassini spacecraft shared a similar perspective when it acquired the images for PIA08329 (the principal difference being that Tethys is nearly in the ringplane and Cassini was 15 degrees above the ringplane when it acquired the images for the color mosaic.)
A long exposure time was required in order to image Tethys while it was in shadow, resulting in the stars' normally point-like images being smeared into streaks.
The view looks toward the northern hemisphere of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles across) from 36 degrees above the moon's equator. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 30, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 263,000 kilometers (163,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 52 degrees. Image scale is 16 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/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10443: Against a Hail of Stars sur le site de la NASA.
This view of the surface of Saturn's moon Tethys, taken during Cassini's close approach to the moon on Sept. 24, 2005, reveals an icy land of steep cliffs. The view is of the southernmost extent of Ithaca Chasma, in a region not seen by NASA's Voyager spacecraft.
The ridges around Ithaca Chasma have been thoroughly hammered by impacts. This appearance suggests that Ithaca Chasma as a whole is very old.
There is brighter material in the floors of many craters on Tethys. That's the opposite situation from Saturn's oddly tumbling moon Hyperion, where dark material is concentrated in the bottoms of many craters.
This view is centered on terrain at approximately 2.5 degrees south latitude and 352 degrees west longitude on Tethys. North on Tethys is toward the right in this view.
This clear filter view was obtained using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 32,300 kilometers (20,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 20 degrees. Image scale is 190 meters (620 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
An extreme false-color view of Tethys reveals a surface detail not visible in a monochrome view taken at the same time.
The false-color view shows a color transition from the moon's Saturn-facing side (at left) to a region its trailing side (at bottom).
Near the top of the images, the central-peaked crater Telemachus lies in the deeply grooved terrain that marks the northern reaches of Ithaca Chasma.
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 superposed 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 Tethys' surface. 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.
The monochrome image was taken using a clear filter.
North on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) is up and rotated 36 degrees to the right.
The images used to create this view were acquired using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 221,000 kilometers (137,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 52 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (4,332 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.
Cassini sighted the far-off icy moon Tethys as it headed back toward Saturn in its long, looping first orbit of the planet. A faint hint of detail on the moon's cratered surface is visible here. Tethys was discovered by Giovanni Cassini, for whom the spacecraft was named. Its diameter is 1,060 kilometers (659 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Sept. 9, 2004, at a distance of 8.8 million kilometers (5.5 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 81 degrees. The image scale is 53 kilometers (33 miles) per pixel. The image was 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.
A crescent Tethys shows off its great scar, Ithaca Chasma, for which the moon is renowned. The chasm is 100 kilometers (60 miles) across on average, and is 4 kilometers (2 miles) deep in places.
See PIA07734 for a much closer view of the chasm taken during a Cassini flyby.Ithaca Chasma is the most prominent sign of ancient geologic activity on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across), whose surface is characterized principally by heavy cratering.The lit surface visible here is on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere. North on Tethys is straight up.The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 28, 2005 using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 123 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft’s views from edge-on with the rings are perfect for capturing multiple Saturnian moons grouped closely.
Here Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across), with its enormous crater Odysseus, is partly overexposed near upper right. At left, Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) hovers above the rings, while Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) hangs below.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 2, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Tethys, 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Pandora, and 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Epimetheus.
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 vast expanse of the crater Odysseus spreads out below Cassini in this mosaic view of Saturn's moon Tethys.
The crater (450 kilometers or 280 miles across) is a remarkably well-preserved example of an ancient multi-ringed impact basin: The outer ring is defined by steep, cliff-like walls that descend to generally broad internal terraces. The inner ring is formed by a prominent, crown-shaped, 140-kilometer (88-mile) diameter circular band of icy mountains. Multi-ring basins are seen on rocky bodies as well as icy ones.
The complex internal structure and multi-ringed nature of these very large basins are believed to arise from the rebound of intense shock waves that penetrated the body at the time of impact.
Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
This mosaic was assembled from four clear filter, narrow-angle camera images. The view is an orthographic projection centered on 3 degrees south latitude, 119 degrees west longitude and has a resolution of 572 meters (0.35 mile) per pixel. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer looking through a telescope. North is up.
The view was obtained by the Cassini spacecraft on Aug. 30, 2007, from a distance of approximately 97,000 kilometers (60,000 miles) and at a sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 51 degrees.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging 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 shadow of Tethys drifts across the face of Saturn. Nearby, shadows of the planet's rings form a darkened band above the equator.
This view looks toward Saturn from a vantage point 63 degrees north of the equator.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 1, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 615,000 kilometers (382,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 37 kilometers (23 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 PIA10512: Moon Spot sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft surveys the battered surface of icy Tethys. The great impact basin straddling the terminator is itself overprinted by many smaller impact sites.
The view in this image is toward the southern hemisphere on the moon's Saturn-facing side. North on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) is up and rotated 7 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 obtained at a distance of approximately 559,000 kilometers (347,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 60 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.
This view from Cassini contains not one, but two moons. Tethys is slightly overexposed so that the real target of this image, tiny Atlas, can be seen. Atlas is at image center, just outside the A ring.
A couple of faint ringlets are visible in the Encke Gap, right of center.
Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) wide; Atlas is a mere 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 21, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Tethys and 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Atlas. The image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft takes in a southern view of the scarred face of icy Tethys.
The moon's south pole is at bottom center, just above the terminator. To the left of the pole is the crater Melanthius, with its complex of central peaks poking upward into sunlight. On the limb at right, Ithaca Chasma extends northward. The smoothness of the limb is interrupted at the 11 o'clock position by the rim of the crater Odysseus. A belt of darker terrain girdles the moon's equator.
This is a similar view to that shown in PIA09918.
This view shows terrain to the west of that seen in the earlier image.
Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, 660 miles across). North is up and rotated 9 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 10, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 477,000 kilometers (296,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 44 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 PIA10400: Broken Ice sur le site de la NASA.
This view of Saturn's moon Tethys shows the contrast between the more heavily cratered region near the top and the more lightly cratered (and presumably younger) plains toward the bottom part of the image and near the limb. Some of the larger craters in the latter region appear to be somewhat subdued or filled in. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
This view shows principally the anti-Saturn hemisphere on Tethys. North is up and tilted 20 degrees to the left.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 9, 2005, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 200,000 kilometers (127,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 120 degrees. Resolution in the image is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 11, 2005, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (850,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 80 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 8 kilometers (5 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.
Cassini looks toward Tethys and its great crater Odysseus, while at the same time capturing veiled Titan in the distance (at left).
Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is shrouded in a thick, smog-like atmosphere in which many small, potential impactors burn up before hitting the moon's surface. Crater-pocked Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) has no such protective layer, although even a thick blanket of atmosphere would have done little good against the impactor that created Odysseus.
The eastern limb of Tethys is overexposed in this view.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 6, 2006, at a distance of approximately 4 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Titan and 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Tethys. The image scale is 25 kilometers (16 miles) per pixel on Titan and 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
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 image shows Saturn's moon Tethys partially occulting the moon Dione. The difference in the surface brightness of the two moons is immediately apparent.
The diameter of Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles), while Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across.
This still image was acquired on Sept. 16, 2005, at a distance of 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Dione and 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Tethys. Resolution in the original images was 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Dione and 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel on Tethys. The still image was magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility of surface features.
A brief movie of is also available (see PIA07620).
Voir l'image PIA07621: Tethys Meets Dione sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's moon Tethys, named for a sea goddess, shows off two of its more puzzling features in this Cassini image. Ithaca Chasma, near lower right, stretches for more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) across the moon's surface. The origin of this canyon system, which is 100 kilometers (60 miles) across on average, is not completely understood, but might have resulted from the impact that created the giant crater Odysseus. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
Also notable in this view is the dark band that girdles the moon's equator. The nature of this feature may be better understood following Cassini's planned close flyby in September, 2005.
The lit surface visible here is on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere; north on Tethys is straight up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 22, 2005, at a distance of approximately 884,000 kilometers (550,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 97 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 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.
This dazzling view of Tethys shows the tremendous rift called Ithaca Chasma, which is 100 kilometers (60 miles) wide in places, and runs nearly three-fourths of the way around the icy moon. Tethys is 1,060 kilometers (659 miles) across.
Adjacent to the great Chasma is a large multi-ring impact basin with a diameter of about 300 kilometers (185 miles). The inner ring of the basin is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) in diameter. The moon's heavily cratered face is indicative of an ancient surface.
This view shows principally the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Tethys. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 15, 2004, at a distance of approximately 560,000 kilometers (348,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 91 degrees. The image scale is about 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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
This view is among the closest Cassini images of Tethys' icy surface taken during the Sept. 24, 2005 flyby.
This false-color image, created with infrared, green and ultraviolet frames, reveals a wide variety of surface colors across this terrain. The presence of this variety at such small scales may indicate a mixture of different surface materials. Tethys was previously known to have color differences on its surface, especially on its trailing side, but this kind of color diversity is new to imaging scientists. For a clear-filter view of this terrain, see PIA07736.
This view is centered on terrain at approximately 4.2 degrees south latitude and 357 degrees west longitude on Tethys. The view has been rotated so that north on Tethys is up.
The images for this view were obtained using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at distances ranging from approximately 18,400 to 19,000 kilometers (11,400 to 11,800 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 17 degrees. Image scale is 213 meters (700 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's moon Tethys displays its distinctive dark equatorial band here, along with two sizeable impact craters in the west. The larger crater to the north is Odysseus, which has a diameter (450 kilometers or 280 miles across) that is a substantial fraction of the moon's width. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
Several moons in the outer solar system have large impact features like Odysseus, and scientists are interested in learning how such powerful impacts have altered the moons' surfaces.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 10, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Tethys. The image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging 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 ancient gorge of Ithaca Chasma carves a path across Tethys and continues out of sight over the moon's limb. This great rift is a system of canyons that is 100 kilometers (60 miles) across on average, is 4 kilometers (2 miles) deep in places, and can be traced more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) over Tethys' surface, from north to south.
This view also shows the belt of darkened material that Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) wears prominently on its leading hemisphere. North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 795,000 kilometers (494,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 99 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.
Two large craters and hints of several smaller ones are visible in this Cassini image of Saturn's icy moon Tethys (1060 kilometers, or 659 miles, across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Sept. 23, 2004, at a distance of 7.9 million kilometers (4.9 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun- Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 80 degrees. The image scale is 48 kilometers (30 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 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.
Saturn poses with Tethys in this Cassini view. The C ring casts thin, string-like shadows on the northern hemisphere. Above that lurks the shadow of the much denser B ring. Cloud bands in the atmosphere are subtly visible in the south. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
Cassini will perform a close flyby of Tethys on September 24, 2005.
The image was taken on June 10, 2005, in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 81 kilometers (50 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 .
Tethys has a crater-saturated surface, where older, larger basins have been completely overprinted by newer, smaller impacts. This state is what scientists expect to see on a very old surface, where small impactors have struck more frequently than larger ones over several billion years. Larger impacts were more common events in the early history of the solar system.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). North is up. The great scar of Ithaca Chasma is seen at right.
The view was captured in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 449,000 kilometers (279,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 49 degrees. Image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft presents a clear view of Tethys' equatorial band of dark terrain, along with the crater Odysseus.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 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 4, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (720,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 4 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 PIA10424: Leading Hemisphere sur le site de la NASA.
Swirling cloud bands, delicate ring shadows and icy moons make the Saturn system a place of supreme natural beauty. Even Cassini's remarkable images can only provide the slightest sense of the experience of actually being there.
Tethys (at the right, 1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) and Mimas (near the center, 397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) are captured here against the planet's turbulent atmosphere.
Although the rings are only a thin strip from this angle, one can see the structure of the entire main ring system in its shadow on the planet -- from the C ring at the bottom to the faint specter of the F ring at the top.
The image was taken in visible violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 16, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 66 kilometers (41 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 Cassini spacecraft surveys the ancient, craggy surface of Tethys, sighting the crater Telemachus with its prominent central peak.
The view is toward the north pole of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). Lit terrain seen here is on the moon's Saturn-facing side.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 29, 2006 at a distance of approximately 641,000 kilometers (398,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 111 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's moon Tethys turns like a great eye as the enormous crater Odysseus (450 kilometers or 280 miles across) rotates into Cassini's view. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 6, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Tethys and from a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 35 degrees. The image scale is 10 kilometers (6 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.
Tethys hangs before the Cassini spacecraft, its great crater Odysseus in view.
See PIA07693 for a close-up view of Odysseus.
This view looks toward the anti-Saturn hemisphere of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 25, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 798,000 kilometers (496,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 12 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 PIA09781: Toward Tethys sur le site de la NASA.
Like a half-full moon, cratered Tethys hangs before the Cassini spacecraft in this narrow angle camera view taken on July 3, 2004.
Voyager images showed a large fracture on Tethys about 750 kilometers (470 miles) long (not seen in this view). Cassini will investigate this and other features on Tethys during two planned flybys, the first occurring on September 24, 2005. Tethys is 1,060 kilometers (659 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light from a distance of 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase angle of about 97 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 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 Tethys displays three of the moon's most notable surface features. At upper left is the giant Odysseus impact basin. At lower right is the great scar of Ithaca Chasma. Extending from east to west across the moon is the great swath of terrain that appears slightly darker than the rest of the moon's surface.
See PIA09766 for a different view of the dark belt.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) from 33 degrees above the equator. North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 14, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (715,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 70 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.
Voir l'image PIA09835: The Triad of Tethys sur le site de la NASA.
This Cassini image shows Saturn's crater-covered moon Tethys as it slid silently along in its orbit while Saturn's delicate rings sliced the view in two. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 23, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 78 degrees. The image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The terminator encroaches upon Penelope, one of the largest craters on Saturn's moon Tethys. Two other large craters, Polyphemus and Phemius, are visible near the limb in this view of the southern portions of Tethys' trailing hemisphere.
The far rim of Phemius disrupts the smooth profile of the icy moon's limb.
Features on Tethys are named for characters and places in "The Odyssey."
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 24, 2008 at a distance of approximately 62,000 kilometers (38,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 94 degrees. Image scale is 366 meters (1,200 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.
Voir l'image PIA10547: Penelope on Tethys sur le site de la NASA.
Plunging cliffs and towering mountains characterize the gigantic impact structure called Odysseus on Saturn's moon Tethys. The great impact basin lies before the Cassini spacecraft in one of the best views yet obtained.
Quite a few small craters are visible inside Odysseus (450 kilometers, or 280 miles across), making it clear that this is not a very young structure. However, a comparison of cratering density between the interior of Odysseus and the surrounding terrain should show whether the large basin is at least relatively young.
Odysseus is on the leading hemisphere of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). North is up and rotated 18 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in polarized ultraviolet light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 196,000 kilometers (122,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 85 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 1 kilometer (3,831 feet) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft stares directly into the great Odysseus impact basin on Tethys. Peaks near the crater's center cast long shadows toward the east. The elevated eastern rim of the crater catches sunlight, despite being well beyond the terminator.
See PIA07693 for a highly detailed view of Odysseus.
Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn hemisphere of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) -- the side that always faces away from Saturn. North is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Tethys. 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.
The Cassini spacecraft provides an excellent view of the southernmost reaches of the great rift of Tethys—Ithaca Chasma.
The view is centered on terrain at 43 degrees south latitude, 52 degrees west longitude. North on Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles across) is up and rotated 28 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 10, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 183,000 kilometers (114,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 73 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09918: Canyons' End sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn’s dark-side rings glow in shades of brown and gold, contrasting with the more neutral appearance of the icy moon Tethys.
This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, 660 miles across). North is up and rotated 35 degrees to the right.
The view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 29, 2007, at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 21 degrees. Image scale is 12 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging 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 PIA09788: True Colors sur le site de la NASA.
A close inspection of this image reveals that there is more of Saturn's moon Tethys here than is apparent at first glance. A slim crescent is all that is visible of the moon's sunlit side, but the left half of the image is dimly lit by "Saturnshine," or reflected light from the planet lying off to the left of Cassini's field of view. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
On occasion, useful details about a moon's surface characteristics can be revealed under such dim illumination, as in PIA06168.
This view shows principally the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Tethys; north is up. Craters along the terminator, the boundary between day and night, are Penelope (at the top) and Antinous (at the bottom).
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 3, 2005. The spacecraft was approximately 842,000 kilometers (523,000 miles) from Tethys. The image was taken with a filter sensitive to wavelengths of polarized ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 144 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
Voir l'image PIA07577: Tethys in the Dark sur le site de la NASA.
With this full-disk mosaic, Cassini presents the best view yet of the south pole of Saturn's moon Tethys.
The giant rift Ithaca Chasma cuts across the disk. Much of the topography seen here, including that of Ithaca Chasma, has a soft, muted appearance. It is clearly very old and has been heavily bombarded by impacts over time.
Many of the fresh-appearing craters (ones with crisp relief) exhibit unusually bright crater floors. The origin of the apparent brightness (or "albedo") contrast is not known. It is possible that impacts punched through to a brighter layer underneath, or perhaps it is brighter because of different grain sizes or textures of the crater floor material in comparison to material along the crater walls and surrounding surface.
The moon's high southern latitudes, seen here at the bottom, were not imaged by NASA's Voyager spacecraft during their flybys of Tethys 25 years ago.
The mosaic is composed of nine images taken during Cassini's close flyby of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) on Sept. 24, 2005, during which the spacecraft passed approximately 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) above the moon's surface.
This view is centered on terrain at approximately 1.2 degrees south latitude and 342 degrees west longitude on Tethys. It has been rotated so that north is up.
The clear filter images in this mosaic were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at distances ranging from 71,600 kilometers (44,500 miles) to 62,400 kilometers (38,800 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 21 degrees. The image scale is 370 meters (1,200 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Click on the image for full resolution
False Color View of Exposing Tethys' Surface
These side-by-side natural color and false-color views show cratered terrain on the anti-Saturn hemisphere of Tethys -- the side that always faces away from Saturn.
The rim of the immense impact basin of Odysseus (450 kilometers or 280 miles across) lies on the eastern limb, at the 2 o'clock position, making the limb there appear flatter than elsewhere. Other large craters seen here are Penelope (left of center) and Melanthius (below center).
The region between Penelope and Odysseus has not previously been imaged at such high resolution before.
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 Tethys. 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 Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) is up.
The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 31, 2006 at a distance of approximately 414,000 kilometers (257,000 miles) from Tethys. Image scale is 2 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.
Tethys floats before the massive, golden-hued globe of Saturn in this natural color view. The thin, dark line of the rings curves around the horizon at top.
Visible on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) are the craters Odysseus (top) and Melanthius (bottom). The view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Tethys.Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this color view. Tethys is apparently darker than Saturn at these wavelengths. The edge of the planet appears fuzzy, which may indicate that we are seeing haze layers that are separated from the main cloud deck. The images were acquired by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 3, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Saturn and 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Tethys.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 dramatic close-up of Tethys shows the large crater Penelope lying near center, overprinted by many smaller, younger impact sites.
Three smaller impact features of roughly similar size make a line left of Penelope that runs north-south: (from bottom) Ajax, Polyphemus and Phemius.
Features on Tethys are named for characters and places from "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." The largest impact structure on Tethys is named Odysseus. (See PIA07693 for a stunning close-up of Odysseus.)
The view is toward the Saturn-facing hemisphere on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). North is up.
The image was taken in polarized ultraviolet light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 165,000 kilometers (103,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 23 degrees. Image scale is 984 meters (3,227 feet) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This view is among the closest Cassini images of Tethys' icy surface taken during the Sept. 24, 2005 flyby.
This image is a clear-filter view and is the highest resolution image acquired by Cassini during the encounter. The two large craters at the right show evidence that landslides have modified their outlines and covered their floors with large quantities of debris. Linear depressions cutting across the terrain probably mark the surface expressions of faults or fractures. For a false-color image see PIA07737.
This view is centered on terrain at approximately 4.2 degrees south latitude and 357 degrees west longitude on Tethys. The image has been rotated so that north on Tethys is up.
The view was obtained using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 19,000 kilometers (11,800 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 17 degrees. Image scale is 110 meters (360 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. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Two large impact basins, including the 450-kilometer-wide (280-mile) Odysseus basin (at the top), mark the face of Saturn's moon Tethys. The outer edge of Saturn's rings is visible at the lower right.
Just discernable is a slight north-south difference in brightness across Tethys' surface. North on Tethys is up and tilted about 20 degrees to the left. This view shows principally the anti-Saturn hemisphere of Tethys. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 3, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase angle of 80 degrees. The image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging 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.
An icy moon drifts above the stormy skies of Saturn.
Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) is seen here before the dark line of the rings. The shadows of the C ring and B ring drape the northern hemisphere at top.
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. 15, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 3.9 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 22 kilometers (17 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.
Odysseus impact basin lies between night and day on Tethys.
Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn side of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across), or the side that always faces away from Saturn as the moon orbits the planet. 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 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 96 degrees. Image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
In this infrared view, Saturn's cratered moon Tethys shows a faint, dark band across its equatorial region. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
North is up in this view, which shows the leading hemisphere on Tethys.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 11, 2005, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (850,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 80 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 8 kilometers (5 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 majesty of Saturn overwhelms in this image from Cassini. Saturn's moon Tethys glides past in its orbit, and the icy rings mask the frigid northern latitudes with their shadows. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 10, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 80 kilometers (50 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.
With nearby Saturn looming large, the Cassini spacecraft spies the bright distant moon Tethys in the icy blackness beyond.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 15 degrees above the ringplane.
Tethys is 1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles, across.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 13, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (836,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 81 kilometers (50 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 PIA10401: Distant Moon sur le site de la NASA.
Two companion moons share the sky before the Cassini spacecraft. Tethys is seen here with one of its two Trojan moons. Calypso, which trails the larger moon in its orbit by 60 degrees, is a couple of pixels across near lower right. Telesto (not pictured) is the other Tethys co-orbital moon, leading Tethys by 60 degrees.
For higher resolution Cassini views of Calypso (22 kilometers, or 14 miles across) and Tethys (1071 kilometers, or 665 miles across), see PIA07633 and PIA07738, respectively.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 25, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Tethys. Image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
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 view of Saturn's moon Tethys shows several large craters near the moon's eastern limb. These craters have fanciful names such as Phemius, Polyphemus and Ajax. The moon's massive rift-like canyon system, Ithaca Chasma, is in the darkness to the west. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
The image has been rotated so that north on Tethys is up. This view shows mainly the moon's trailing hemisphere.
The image was taken in visible blue 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 Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 111 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.
The Cassini spacecraft spies four large impact basins on the southern hemisphere of icy Tethys.
Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across), like the other airless worlds of the Solar System, wears the record of countless impacts experienced over the eons.
Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Tethys. North is up and rotated 15 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 obtained at a distance of approximately 452,000 kilometers (281,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 54 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.
Five hours after acquiring PIA10460, the Cassini spacecraft turned its cameras back to Tethys for a more southerly view. The southern reaches of Ithaca Chasma are seen here, along with the large crater Telemus just right of center.
Lit terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing side of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles across). The view looks toward the southern hemisphere from a perspective 43 degrees south of the moon's equator. North is toward the top and rotated 30 degrees to the right.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 28, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 313,000 kilometers (194,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 42 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 PIA10462: Southern Face of Tethys sur le site de la NASA.
Even from afar, Cassini's cameras reveal a tremendous amount of detail in the planet's rings. The punctuated detail in the C ring, the bright fine structure in the B ring, the dark bands within the Cassini Division, the bland nature of the outermost A ring, as well as knots in the twisted F ring, are all visible. The moon Tethys (1,060 kilometers, or 659 miles, across) hovers beyond the rings at the top.
This image was taken from beneath the ring plane in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Nov. 1, 2004, at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 129 kilometers (80 miles) per pixel. This image has been slightly contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
This view Saturn's icy moon Tethys shows a large crater with a central peak in the southern hemisphere. Other surface details of this heavily cratered surface are faintly visible. At the time this image was taken, Cassini was 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 13, 2004. Cassini was 4.8 million kilometers (3 million miles) from Tethys. Thethys, pronounced "TEE-thiss," has a diameter of 1,060 kilometers (659 miles). The Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase angle of the images is 97 degrees. The image scale is 29 kilometers (18 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.
Tethys sits within Saturn's shadow, but not in complete darkness. While in eclipse the moon is illuminated by feeble ringshine reflected from the planet's night side and by sunlight scattered through the rings.
This is a similar observation to PIA10433. Such images provide confirmation of the spacecraft's precise pointing for Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), which measures Tethys' surface temperature as it responds to the sudden darkness of an eclipse.
Lit terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing side of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles across). North is up and rotated 12 degrees to the right.
A long exposure time was required in order to image Tethys while it was in shadow, resulting in the background stars' point-like images being smeared into streaks. Additionally, the image was taken using a compression scheme that reduces the image file size on the spacecraft's data recorder, resulting in the moon's pixilated appearance.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 113,000 kilometers (70,000 miles) from Tethys. 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 PIA10508: Tethys in Eclipse sur le site de la NASA.
Ghostly details make this dark scene more than just a beautiful grouping of two Saturn moons, with Tethys on the left and Titan on the right. In Titan's thick and inflated atmosphere, the detached high haze layer can be seen, as well as the complex northern polar hood (at the top). Images like this one can help scientists make definitive estimates of the altitudes to which the high haze extends.
The faint vertical banded pattern is a type of noise that usually is removed during image processing. Because this image was processed to enhance the visibility of details in Titan's atmosphere and the faint G ring, the vertical noise was also enhanced.
Titan is Saturn's largest moon, at 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across.
This view was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Titan and 1 million kilometers (600,000 miles) from Tethys. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Titan and 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
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 prominent crater Telemachus sits within the northern reaches of Ithaca Chasma on Saturn's moon Tethys.
Ithaca Chasma is an enormous rift that stretches more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from north to south across Tethys.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles across) from a position 55 degrees north of the moon's equator. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 24, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 151,000 kilometers (94,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 61 degrees. Image scale is 903 meters (2,962 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.
Voir l'image PIA10506: Crater and Canyon sur le site de la NASA.