Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Cassini-Huygens Collection
Title:
Sister Moons
Description:
Dione and Tethys
Full Description:
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.n…. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.

*Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Date:
April 18, 2005
Keywords:
Cassini
Keywords:
Tethys
Keywords:
Dione
facet_what:
Saturn
facet_what:
Cassini
facet_what:
Cassini-Huygens
facet_what:
Huygens Probe
facet_what:
Moon
facet_what:
Dione
facet_what:
Cassini Orbiter
facet_what:
Crater
facet_what:
Visible Light
facet_what:
Tethys
facet_where:
Saturn
facet_where:
Dione
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
facet_where:
California
facet_where:
Washington
facet_where:
Tethys
facet_where:
Arizona
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_where:
Washington, D.C.
facet_when:
March 7, 2005
facet_when:
April 18, 2005
facet_when_year:
2005
UID:
SPD-SATRN-1483
original url:

Sister Moons