Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection
Title:
Phoebe's Radiation
Original Caption Released with Image:
This image shows thermal radiation from the day and night sides of Saturn's moon Phoebe, taken by the composite infrared spectrometer onboard Cassini 1.8 hours before the spacecraft's closest approach to Phoebe on June 11, 2004. The left-hand panel displays the image in grayscale format, showing the brightness of Phoebe's radiation in the wavelength range 15-17 microns, which is about 25 times the longest wavelength visible to the naked eye. In the middle panel this brightness is used to estimate the surface temperature distribution across Phoebe. Temperatures are given in degrees Kelvin, and vary from a relatively toasty 107 Kelvin (-267 Fahrenheit), in the late morning near the equator (white, lower right), to less than 75 Kelvin (-324 Fahrenheit) in the northern hemisphere in the pre-dawn hours (dark blue, upper left). The "ragged edge" of Phoebe in this region is an instrumental artifact.

Temperatures are affected strongly by topography, as can be seen by comparison with the visible-wavelength image (right). Some of the coldest temperatures are found in the shadowed region inside the large depression in the northern hemisphere (upper 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 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 composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http//cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Goddard Space Flight Center
Produced By:
Goddard Space Flight Center
Mission:
Cassini
Spacecraft:
Cassini Orbiter
Target Name:
Phoebe
Is a satellite of:
Saturn
Instrument:
Composite Infrared Spectrometer
Product Size:
720 samples x 540 lines
Primary Data Set:
Cassini
facet_what:
Moon
facet_what:
Spectrometer
facet_what:
Saturn
facet_what:
Cassini
facet_what:
Infrared Spectrometer
facet_what:
Dawn
facet_what:
Cassini Orbiter
facet_what:
Huygens Probe
facet_what:
Cassini-Huygens
facet_what:
Composite Infrared Spectrometer
facet_where:
Saturn
facet_where:
California
facet_where:
Washington
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Washington, D.C.
facet_when:
June 11, 2004
facet_when_year:
2004
Image #:
PIA06402
UID:
SPD-PHOTJ-PIA06402
orignial url:

Phoebe's Radiation