Cassini Sends Back Images of Enceladus as Winter Nears
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Cassini Sends Back Images of Enceladus as Winter Nears
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
November 21, 2009
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sailed seamlessly through the Nov. 21
flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus and started transmitting uncalibrated
temperature data and images of the rippling terrain. These data and
images will be processed and analyzed in the coming weeks. They will
help scientists create the most-detailed-yet mosaic image of the
southern part of the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere and a contiguous
thermal map of one of the intriguing "tiger stripe" features, with the
highest resolution to date.
"These first raw images are spectacular, and paint an even more
fascinating picture of Enceladus," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project
scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The
Cassini teams will be delving into the data to better understand the
workings of this bizarre, active moon."
Scientists are particularly interested in the tiger stripes, which are
fissures in the south polar region, because they spew jets of water
vapor and other particles hundreds of kilometers, or miles, from the
surface. This flyby was scientists' last peek at the tiger stripes
before the south pole fades into the darkness of winter for several
years. The thermal imaging work focused on the tiger stripe known as
Baghdad Sulcus.
The Nov. 21 encounter, which is sometimes called "E8" because it is the
eighth targeted flyby of Enceladus, brought Cassini to within about
1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) of the moon's surface, at around 82
degrees south latitude. Cassini is now cruising toward Rhea, another one
of Saturn's moons, for more imaging and mapping work.
To see a full gallery of raw images, click here
<http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/>. For more information on the
flyby, click here
<http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/enceladus20091121/>.
[Image]
Unprocessed image from Cassini's Enceladus flyby
This unprocessed image was captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during
its Nov. 21, 2009 flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus. It shows the ridges
and fractures on the surface of the icy moon. Image credit:
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Full image and caption
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/cassini-b-20091121.html>
enlarge image
<http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/cassini/20091121/cassini20091121-b-full.jpg>