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Blasted Mimas
| Description |
Blasted Mimas |
| Full Description |
Mimas plows along in its orbit, its pockmarked surface in crisp relief. The bright, steep walls of the enormous crater, Herschel (130 kilometers, or 80 miles wide), gleam in the sunlight. The lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across). North is up. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 16, 2006 at a distance of approximately 221,000 kilometers (137,000 miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 80 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 . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
September 11, 2006 |
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Duotone Moon
| Description |
Duotone Moon |
| Full Description |
The many impact scars borne by Iapetus are made far more conspicuous in the region of transition from its dark hemisphere to its bright one. In this terrain, the dark material that coats Cassini Regio accentuates slopes and crater floors, creating a land of stark contrasts. North on Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) is up. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 6, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun- Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 26 degrees. 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 . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
September 25, 2006 |
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Transition on Tethys
| Description |
Transition on Tethys |
| Full Description |
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 . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
October 10, 2006 |
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Enigma in Ice
| Description |
Enigma in Ice |
| Full Description |
Cassini spies the wrinkled, fractured and remarkably crater-poor terrain of Enceladus. Scientists are working to understand what causes the moon's surprising geologic activity (see Fountains of Enceladus). North on Enceladus (505 kilometers, 314 miles across) is up and rotated 20 degrees to the left. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 8, 2006 at a distance of approximately 560,000 kilometers (348,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun- Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 103 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 . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
September 28, 2006 |
|
Target: Tethys
| Description |
Target: Tethys |
| Full Description |
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 . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
October 19, 2006 |
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Cratered Crescent
| Description |
Cratered Crescent |
| Full Description |
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 . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
November 29, 2006 |
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Helene
| Description |
Helene |
| Full Description |
Cassini came close to Saturn's small moon Helene on Feb. 25, 2006, acquiring this high-resolution view. This object seems to be buried in its own crater debris, like another Saturnian moon, Telesto. Helene (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) orbits 60 degrees ahead of Dione in the larger moon's orbit, making it a "trojan" moon of Dione. Trojan moons are named for the Trojan group of asteroids that orbit 60 degrees ahead of and behind Jupiter as it circles the sun. This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 68,000 kilometers (42,000 miles) from Helene and at a sun-Helene-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 99 degrees. Image scale is 406 meters (1,334 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 . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
December 29, 2006 |
|
Pulverized Pulchritude (Enha
…
| Description |
This close view of Rhea prominently shows two large impact basins on the ancient and battered moon. |
| Full Description |
This close view of Rhea prominently shows two large impact basins on the ancient and battered moon. The great age of these basins is suggested by the large number of smaller craters that are overprinted within them. Ejecta from the bright, relatively young crater seen in Crater Contrast spreads from the eastern limb. Terrain visible in this view is on the side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) that faces away from Saturn. North on Rhea is up and tilted 30 degrees to the left. See Pulverized Pulchritude (Monochrome) for a similar monochrome view. This enhanced color view was created by combining images taken using filters sensitive to ultraviolet, visible green and infrared light. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 23, 2005, at a distance of approximately 341,000 kilometers (212,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 42 degrees. The 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 . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
January 26, 2006 |
|
Pulverized Pulchritude (Mono
…
| Description |
This close view of Rhea prominently shows two large impact basins on the ancient and battered moon. |
| Full Description |
This close view of Rhea prominently shows two large impact basins on the ancient and battered moon. The great age of these basins is suggested by the large number of smaller craters that are overprinted within them. Ejecta from the bright, relatively young crater seen in Crater Contrast spreads from the eastern limb. Terrain visible in this view is on the side of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) that faces away from Saturn. North on Rhea is up and tilted 30 degrees to the left. See Pulverized Pulchritude (Enhanced Color) for a similar enhanced color view. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 23, 2005 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The image was acquired at a distance of approximately 341,000 kilometers (212,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 42 degrees. The 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 . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
January 26, 2006 |
|
Cratered Iceball
| Description |
Scarred and battered Rhea fills the Cassini spacecraft's view. Notable here is the sharp relief of steep crater walls near the terminator. |
| Full Description |
Scarred and battered Rhea fills the Cassini spacecraft's view. Notable here is the sharp relief of steep crater walls near the terminator. Icy Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is Saturn's second-largest moon. This view shows terrain on Rhea's trailing hemisphere. North is up and rotated 22 degrees to the left. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 267,000 kilometers (166,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 59 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 . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
January 30, 2006 |
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Titan Smiles Back
| Description |
This infrared view shows features on the leading hemisphere of Titan, including the bright, crescent-shaped Hotei arcus (right of center), which is also informally called |
| Full Description |
This infrared view shows features on the leading hemisphere of Titan, including the bright, crescent-shaped Hotei arcus (right of center), which is also informally called "the Smile" by researchers. The view is centered on the bright region called Xanadu. Above center is the large crater Menrva, which is surrounded by darker material. North on Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) is up and rotated 30 degrees to the left. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 13, 2006 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers. The image was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 41 degrees. Image scale is 7 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 . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
February 21, 2006 |
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To the Relief of Iapetus
| Description |
Sunlight strikes the terminator (the boundary between day and night) region on Saturn's moon Iapetus at nearly horizontal angles, making visible the vertical relief of many features. |
| Full Description |
Sunlight strikes the terminator (the boundary between day and night) region on Saturn's moon Iapetus at nearly horizontal angles, making visible the vertical relief of many features. This view is centered on terrain in the southern hemisphere of Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across). Lit terrain visible here is on the moon's leading hemisphere. In this image, a large, central-peaked crater is notable at the boundary between the dark material in Cassini Regio and the brighter material on the trailing hemisphere. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 22, 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 67 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 8 kilometers (5 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 . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
March 2, 2006 |
|
Penelope Crater
| Description |
Penelope Crater |
| Full Description |
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 The Great Basin 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 . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
April 4, 2006 |
|
Toward Melanthius
| Description |
Toward Melanthius |
| Full Description |
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 . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
August 29, 2006 |
|
Positive ID
| Description |
Positive ID |
| Full Description |
The great basin that interrupts the contours of this moon's crescent identifies the satellite unmistakably as Mimas. The giant crater Herschel (130 kilometers, or 80 miles wide) is this moon's most obvious feature. North on Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is up and rotated 23 degrees to the left. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 8, 2006 at a distance of approximately 534,000 kilometers (331,000 miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 115 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 . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
October 2, 2006 |
|
Revisiting the Splat
| Description |
Revisiting the Splat |
| Full Description |
Rhea shows off her bright, fresh-looking impact crater in this Cassini view taken during a close approach. For a high-resolution view of this crater, taken during a much closer encounter, see Catch That Crater. The view is toward the leading hemisphere on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). North is up. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 24, 2006 at a distance of approximately 343,000 kilometers (213,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 27 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 . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
April 21, 2006 |
|
Sharp Focus on Mimas
| Description |
This amazing perspective view captures battered Mimas against the hazy limb of Saturn. |
| Full Description |
This amazing perspective view captures battered Mimas against the hazy limb of Saturn. It is obvious in such close-up images that Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) has been badly scarred by impacts over the eons. Its 130 kilometer- (80 mile-) wide crater, Herschel, lies in the darkness at right. North on Mimas is up and rotated 19 degrees to the right. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 21, 2006 using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The image was acquired at a distance of approximately 191,000 kilometers (119,000 miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 91 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (3,730 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 . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
May 5, 2006 |
|
From Dark to Bright and Red
…
| Description |
Cassini's landmark investigation of Saturn's yin-yang moon Iapetus, with its bright and dark hemispheres, continues to provide insights into the nature of this intriguing body. |
| Full Description |
Cassini's landmark investigation of Saturn's yin-yang moon Iapetus, with its bright and dark hemispheres, continues to provide insights into the nature of this intriguing body. These two views of Iapetus primarily show terrain in the southern part of the moon's dark leading hemisphere -- the side of Iapetus that is coated with dark material. The bright south pole of Iapetus is visible, along with some terrain (at the bottom) that lies on the bright trailing hemisphere. The dark terrain known as Cassini Regio is uniformly dark between the equator and about 30 degrees south latitude. From there down to about 50 to 60 degrees south latitude, the dark material looks "patchy" because south-facing crater walls are bright (being largely devoid of the dark material). South of this region, only some northward-facing crater walls are still dark, while the bright terrain has a somewhat reddish color. See Dark-stained Iapetus for an up-close view of this transition in the northern hemisphere. Beyond 90 degrees south (i.e., on the trailing side), the reddish color becomes white. The region at the bottom of the color view presented here shows this "color boundary" in the bright terrain, which also marks the boundary between the leading and trailing hemispheres. Iapetus is 1,468 kilometers (912 miles) across. North is up in the monochrome image and rotated 16 degrees to the left in the color image. The monochrome image on the left was taken using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The image was obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 8, 2006, at a distance of approximately 866,000 kilometers (538,000 miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 88 degrees. The image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel. The color view on the right was created by combining images taken in ultraviolet, green and infrared spectral filters. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 9, 2006, at a distance of approximately 692,000 kilometers (430,000 miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 101 degrees. The image scale is 4 kilometers (2.5 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 . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
May 22, 2006 |
|
Bright Ice Below
| Description |
Bright Ice Below |
| Full Description |
Rhea's crater-saturated surface shows a large bright blotch, which was likely created when a geologically recent impact sprayed bright, fresh ice ejecta over the moon's surface. The rim of the great Tirawa impact basin can be seen near the top of the image. The giant feature is approximately 360 kilometers (220 miles) across. This equatorial view captures Rhea's leading hemisphere. North is up and rotated 40 degrees to the right. The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 28, 2006 at a distance of approximately 481,000 kilometers (299,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 23 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 . Credit:NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
May 31, 2006 |
|
Ragged Crescent
| Description |
Ragged Crescent |
| Full Description |
Rhea's devastated surface creates a jagged terminator as mountains and crater rims break-up the line between day and night. Terrain on Rhea's night side is dimly lit by reflected light from Saturn. The view looks toward the southern hemisphere on the moon's trailing side. North on Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is up. The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 22, 2006 at a distance of approximately 263,000 kilometers (164,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 138 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (about 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 . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
June 27, 2006 |
|
Sharp Focus on Mimas
| title |
Sharp Focus on Mimas |
| date |
03.21.2006 |
| description |
This amazing perspective view captures battered Mimas against the hazy limb of Saturn. It is obvious in such close-up images that Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) has been badly scarred by impacts over the eons. Its 130 kilometer- (80 mile-) wide crater, Herschel, lies in the darkness at right. North on Mimas is up and rotated 19 degrees to the right. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 21, 2006 using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The image was acquired at a distance of approximately 191,000 kilometers (119,000 miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 91 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (3,730 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 [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ] . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org [ http://ciclops.org ] . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
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From Dark to Bright and Red
…
| title |
From Dark to Bright and Red to White |
| date |
04.09.2006 |
| description |
Cassini's landmark investigation of Saturn's yin-yang moon Iapetus, with its bright and dark hemispheres, continues to provide insights into the nature of this intriguing body. These two views of Iapetus primarily show terrain in the southern part of the moon's dark leading hemisphere -- the side of Iapetus that is coated with dark material. The bright south pole of Iapetus is visible, along with some terrain (at the bottom) that lies on the bright trailing hemisphere. The dark terrain known as Cassini Regio is uniformly dark between the equator and about 30 degrees south latitude. From there down to about 50 to 60 degrees south latitude, the dark material looks "patchy" because south-facing crater walls are bright (being largely devoid of the dark material). South of this region, only some northward-facing crater walls are still dark, while the bright terrain has a somewhat reddish color. See Dark-stained Iapetus [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1271 ] for an up-close view of this transition in the northern hemisphere. Beyond 90 degrees south (i.e., on the trailing side), the reddish color becomes white. The region at the bottom of the color view presented here shows this "color boundary" in the bright terrain, which also marks the boundary between the leading and trailing hemispheres. Iapetus is 1,468 kilometers (912 miles) across. North is up in the monochrome image and rotated 16 degrees to the left in the color image. The monochrome image on the left was taken using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The image was obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 8, 2006, at a distance of approximately 866,000 kilometers (538,000 miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 88 degrees. The image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel. The color view on the right was created by combining images taken in ultraviolet, green and infrared spectral filters. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 9, 2006, at a distance of approximately 692,000 kilometers (430,000 miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 101 degrees. The image scale is 4 kilometers (2.5 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 [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ] . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org [, http://ciclops.org ] . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
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'McMurdo' Panorama from Spir
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| title |
'McMurdo' Panorama from Spirit's 'Winter Haven' |
| description |
This 360-degree view, called the "McMurdo" panorama, comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. From April through October 2006, Spirit has stayed on a small hill known as "Low Ridge." There, the rover's solar panels are tilted toward the sun to maintain enough solar power for Spirit to keep making scientific observations throughout the winter on southern Mars. This view of the surroundings from Spirit's "Winter Haven" is presented in approximately true color. Oct. 26, 2006, marks Spirit's 1,000th sol of what was planned as a 90-sol mission. (A sol is a Martian day, which lasts 24 hours, 39 minutes, 35 seconds). The rover has lived through the most challenging part of its second Martian winter. Its solar power levels are rising again. Spring in the southern hemisphere of Mars will begin in early 2007. Before that, the rover team hopes to start driving Spirit again toward scientifically interesting places in the "Inner Basin" and "Columbia Hills" inside Gusev crater. The McMurdo panorama is providing team members with key pieces of scientific and topographic information for choosing where to continue Spirit's exploration adventure. The Pancam began shooting component images of this panorama during Spirit's sol 814 (April 18, 2006) and completed the part shown here on sol 932 (Aug. 17, 2006). The panorama was acquired using all 13 of the Pancam's color filters, using lossless compression for the red and blue stereo filters, and only modest levels of compression on the remaining filters. The overall panorama consists of 1,449 Pancam images and represents a raw data volume of nearly 500 megabytes. It is thus the largest, highest-fidelity view of Mars acquired from either rover. Additional photo coverage of the parts of the rover deck not shown here was completed on sol 980 (Oct. 5 , 2006). The team is completing the processing and mosaicking of those final pieces of the panorama, and that image will be released on the Web shortly to augment this McMurdo panorama view. This beautiful scene reveals a tremendous amount of detail in Spirit's surroundings. Many dark, porous-textured volcanic rocks can be seen around the rover, including many on Low Ridge. Two rocks to the right of center, brighter and smoother-looking in this image and more reflective in infrared observations by Spirit's miniature thermal emission spectrometer, are thought to be meteorites. On the right, "Husband Hill" on the horizon, the rippled "El Dorado" sand dune field near the base of that hill, and lighter-toned "Home Plate" below the dunes provide context for Spirit's travels since mid-2005. Left of center, tracks and a trench dug by Spirit's right-front wheel, which no longer rotates, have exposed bright underlying material. This bright material is evidence of sulfur-rich salty minerals in the subsurface, which may provide clues about the watery past of this part of Gusev Crater. Spirit has stayed busy at Winter Haven during the past, six months even without driving. In addition to acquiring this spectacular panorama, the rover team has also acquired significant new assessments of the elemental chemistry and mineralogy of rocks and soil targets within reach of the rover's arm. The team plans soon to have Spirit drive to a very nearby spot on Low Ridge to access different rock and soil samples while maintaining a good solar panel tilt toward the sun for the rest of the Martian winter. Despite the long span of time needed for acquiring this 360-degree view -- a few images at a time every few sols over a total of 119 sols because the available power was so low -- the lighting and color remain remarkably uniform across the mosaic. This fact attests to the repeatability of wintertime sols on Mars in the southern hemisphere. |
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Victoria Crater' at Meridian
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| title |
Victoria Crater' at Meridiani Planum |
| date |
10.06.2006 |
| description |
This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows "Victoria crater," an impact crater at Meridiani Planum, near the equator of Mars. The crater is approximately 800 meters (half a mile) in diameter. It has a distinctive scalloped shape to its rim, caused by erosion and downhill movement of crater wall material. Layered sedimentary rocks are exposed along the inner wall of the crater, and boulders that have fallen from the crater wall are visible on the crater floor. The floor of the crater is occupied by a striking field of sand dunes. Since January 2004, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been operating at Meridiani Planum. Five days before this image was taken, Opportunity arrived at the rim of Victoria crater, after a drive of more than 9 kilometers (over 5 miles). The rover can be seen in this image, at roughly the "ten o'clock" position along the rim of the crater. This view is a portion of an image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on Oct. 3, 2006. The complete image is centered at minus7.8 degrees latitude, 279.5 degrees East longitude. The range to the target site was 297 kilometers (185.6 miles). At this distance the image scale is 29.7 centimeters (12 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects about 89 centimeters (35 inches) across are resolved. The image shown here has been map-projected to 25 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel and north is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:30 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 59.7 degrees, thus the sun was about 30.3 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 113.6 degrees, the season on Mars is northern summer. This is an enhanced-color view generated from images acquired by the HiRISE camera using its red filter and blue-green filter. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mroor http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UA |
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Hubble Images of Asteroids H
…
| Title |
Hubble Images of Asteroids Help Astronomers Prepare for Spacecraft Visit |
|
Landscape West of Bosporos R
…
| title |
Landscape West of Bosporos Rupes |
| Description |
This image was taken in the mid-latitudes of Mars' southern hemisphere near the giant Argyre impact basin. It is located just to the west of a prominent scarp known as Bosporos Rupes. The left side of the image shows cratered plains. Some of the craters are heavily mantled and indistinct, whereas others exhibit sharp rims and dramatic topography. The largest crater in this half of the image is about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) wide. Mounds and ridges, which may be remnants of an ice-rich deposit, are visible on its floor. Three sinuous valleys occupy the center of the image. Valleys such as these were first observed in data returned by the NASA Mariner 9 spacecraft, which reached Mars in 1971. The right side of the image shows part of an impact crater that is approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. The furrowed appearance of the crater's inner wall suggests that it has been extensively modified, perhaps by landslides and flowing water. Like other craters in the area, the floor of this crater has a rough and dissected texture that is often attributed to the loss of ice-rich material. Image AEB_000001_0050_Red was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on March 24, 2006. The image is centered at 40.64 degrees south latitude, 303.49 degrees east longitude. The image is oriented such that north is 7 degrees to the left of up. The range to the target was 2,044 kilometers (1,270 miles). At this distance the image scale is 2.04 meters (6.69 feet) per pixel, so objects as small as 6.1 meters (20 feet) are resolved. In total this image is 40.90 kilometers (25.41 miles) or 20,081 pixels wide and 11.22 kilometers (6.97 miles) or 5,523 pixels high. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 07:30 and the scene is illuminated from the upper right with a solar incidence angle of 81.4 degrees, thus the sun was about 8.6 degrees above the horizon. At an Ls of 29 degrees (with Ls an indicator of Mars' position in its orbit around the sun), the season on Mars is southern autumn. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona |
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Landscape Northeast of Halle
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| title |
Landscape Northeast of Halley Crater |
| Description |
. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona, This image shows a landscape west of Mars' Argyre impact basin and northeast of Halley Crater. The large but faint circular feature near the center of the image is an unnamed impact crater about 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) in diameter. It has been all but erased by geological (and probably ice-related) processes. In fact, the majority of impact craters in this image have been modified from their original shapes, some undoubtedly beyond recognition. Only a few small craters remain pristine. The most prevalent surface type in this image is rough, dissected terrain, which is characterized by a complex pattern of knobs, pits, ridges and valleys. In places the rough terrain has been covered by a younger material that appears flat, smooth and nearly featureless. The smooth material may have been emplaced as muddy or icy debris. It filled low-lying areas (most notably craters) and surrounded higher features, preserving islands of rough terrain. Wind-formed dunes have formed atop some of the smooth material, and diagonal streaks on the right side of the image may be due to the winds. Images such as this show the importance of water (liquid and/or ice), wind, and impacts in shaping the surface of Mars. Image AEB_000001_0100_Red was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on March 24, 2006. The image is centered at 47.14 degrees south latitude, 302.00 degrees east longitude. It is oriented such that north is 7 degrees to the left of up. The range to the target was 1,699 kilometers (1,056 miles). At this distance the image scale is 1.70 meter (5.58 feet) per pixel in the center portion of the image, so objects as small as 5.1 meter (16.7 feet) are resolved. In the side regions the pixels were binned 2x2 to a scale of 3.4 meters (11.2 feet) per pixel. The camera has a total of 10 red-bandpass CCD detectors, and in this image the first 4 CCDs on the left and the last 3 on the right were binned 2x2, while 3 in the middle returned data at full resolution. In total this image is 34.08 kilometers (21.18 miles) or 20,081 pixels wide and 8.50 kilometers (5.28 miles) or 5,164 pixels high. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 07:27 and the scene is illuminated from the upper right with a solar incidence angle of 84.5 degrees, thus the sun was about 5.5 degrees above the horizon. At an Ls of 29 degrees (with Ls an indicator of Mars' position in its orbit around the sun), the season on Mars is southern autumn. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ] |
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First HiRISE image of Mars
| title |
First HiRISE image of Mars |
| Description |
. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona, The first image of Mars by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a story of geologic change in the eastern Bosporos Planum region. Old stream valleys cut into the flanks of a gently sloping mountain range in the center of the image. Layers of smooth-textured deposits have mantled the stream valleys and many impact craters. Wind and sublimation of water or carbon dioxide ice have partially eroded patches of the smooth-textured deposits, leaving behind areas of layered and hummocky terrain. A prominent ridge that extends from the top to the bottom of the image dominates the scene. This ridge formed above a thrust fault, a type of fault that occurs when the surface of a planet is compressed. On planetary surfaces, such fault-related ridges are termed "wrinkle ridges." They are commonly observed on Mars, as well as on Earth's moon and on Venus and Mercury. The wrinkle ridge imaged here is named Ogygis Rupes. This wrinkle ridge has deformed several valleys and impact craters. Throughout the scene, geologically young sand dunes are present within stream valleys and some impact craters. The area is also sprinkled with many small young impact craters, which are distinguished by sharp crater rims and bright or dark halos of ejected material. This image demonstrates how a single HiRISE image can capture a multitude of geologic processes. Image AEB_000001_0000_Red was taken by HiRISE on March 24, 2006. The image is centered at 33.65 degrees south latitude, 305.07 degrees east longitude. It is oriented such that north is 7 degrees to the left of up. The range to the target was 2,493 kilometers (1,549 miles). At this distance the image scale is 2.49 meters (8.17 feet) per pixel, so objects as small as 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) are resolved. In total this image is 49.92 kilometers (31.02 miles) or 20,081 pixels wide and 23.66 kilometers (14.70 miles) or 9,523 pixels long. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 07:33 and the scene is illuminated from the upper right with a solar incidence angle of 78 degrees, thus the sun was 12 degrees above the horizon. At an Ls of 29 degrees (with Ls an indicator of Mars' position in its orbit around the sun), the season on Mars is southern autumn. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ] |
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Twilight Imaging of Kepler C
…
| title |
Twilight Imaging of Kepler Crater Floor |
| Description |
This image of the floor of Kepler crater in early morning twilight highlights the quality of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera even under extremely minimal lighting conditions. At the time that this image was acquired, the sun had just barely risen over the horizon. This faint illumination reveals a terrain dotted by numerous exhumed impact craters. These impact craters once dominated the landscape of this region until they were buried under a blanket of soil. Subsequent wind action and perhaps sublimation of subsurface water and carbon-dioxide ice has etched pits and grooves into the blanket of soil, revealing the older impact craters below. These exhumed impact craters can be recognized as circular depressions or plateaus. Also present in this scene are multitudes of dunes that have formed as sand has blown across the terrain. Dunes have accumulated in depressions, such as the pits and grooves associated with the exhumed impact craters, as well as on the floors of some of the larger craters. Image AEB_000002_0100_Red was taken by HiRISE camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on March 25, 2006. The image is centered at 47.14 degrees south latitude, 142.90 degrees east longitude. It is oriented such that north is 7 degrees to the left of up. The range to the target was 1,694 kilometers (1,053 miles). Because the image was acquired by mixing the resolution levels of HiRISE detectors, the scale of the image is 6.76 meters (22.18 feet) per pixel, so objects as small as 27.04 meters (88.71 feet) are resolved. In total this image is 33.88 kilometers (21.05 miles) or 5,017 pixels wide and 37.18 kilometers (23.10 miles) or 5,636 pixels long. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 07:25 and the scene is illuminated from the upper right with a solar incidence angle of 85.1 degrees, thus the sun was about 4.9 degrees above the horizon. At an Ls of 30 degrees (with Ls an indicator of Mars' position in its orbit around the sun), the season on Mars is southern autumn. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona |
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Sample of Mid-latitude South
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| title |
Sample of Mid-latitude Southern Highlands |
| Description |
http://www.nasa.gov [ http://www.nasa.gov ]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona, This image shows terrain northeast of Martz Crater in the southern highlands of Mars. It is a landscape dominated by impact craters, scarps and ridges. The plethora of craters and the overprinting of younger craters on older craters indicate that this is an ancient surface. Curvilinear ridges called "wrinkle ridges" are common landforms on Mars. They form when layers of rock and sediment break and fold under compression. Multiple wrinkle ridges are captured in this image, the most prominent of which is a curving structure oriented approximately north-south. A 2.8-kilometer-wide (1.7-mile-wide) impact crater is superimposed on this north-south wrinkle ridge. Gullies, perhaps carved by water or muddy debris, are visible inside this crater. They are partly in shadow, but can be shown clearly by adjusting the contrast of the full-resolution image. Several of the smaller craters in this image contain dune fields, which attest to the presence of wind-blown sediments. In the lower portion of the image a few cliffs or scarps can be seen. While their origin is uncertain, they may have formed by some combination of flowing water and mass wasting. If one looks carefully at this image, it is possible to find horizontal blurred zones about 100 pixels tall. During these times the spacecraft was executing a test of how much the motion of another instrument would shake the spacecraft. These blurred regions also introduce geometric distortions, so the match between the three CCD images utilized for this observation is sometimes poor. The MRO spacecraft includes a high-stability mode that should minimize these problems. Image AEB_000002_0000_Red was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on March 25, 2006. The image is centered at 33.66 degrees south latitude, 145.97 degrees east longitude. It is oriented such that north is 7 degrees to the left of up. The range to the target was 2,485 kilometers (1,544 miles). At this distance the image scale is 2.49 meters (8.17 feet) per pixel, so objects as small as 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) are resolved. In total this image is 15.01 kilometers (9.33 miles) or 6,045 pixels wide and 57.27 kilometers (35.59 miles) or 23,024 pixels long. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 07:30 and the scene is illuminated from the upper right with a solar incidence angle of 78.7 degrees, thus the sun was about 11.3 degrees above the horizon. At an Ls of 30 degrees (with Ls an indicator of Mars' position in its orbit around the sun), the season on Mars is southern autumn. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro [ http://www.nasa.gov/mro ] or http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu ]. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: |
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| Description |
Browse Image | Medium Image (129 kB) | Large (20.4 MB) Hi-Res (NASA's Planetary Photojournal) [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08813 ] |
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Gullied Crater
PIA08078
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Gullied Crater |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
17 April 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a 1.5 meters (~5 feet) per pixel view of a crater in the Terra Cimmeria region of Mars. Several gullies extend from near the top of the crater rim, downslope toward the floor of the crater. Liquid water might have played a role in their genesis. "Location near": 37.7°S, 191.6°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Summer |
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Bi-level Gullies
PIA02919
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Bi-level Gullies |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
15 March 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows two suites of gullies within a single impact crater in the Terra Cimmeria region. The gullies near the top of the image are located on the northern wall of the crater, while the lower suite resides on a lower bench in the crater's northern wall complex. Gully erosion has cut into the layered rock exposed on the crater wall. Water may have been involved in their formation. "Location near": 38.2°S, 190.6°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Summer |
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Sharp Focus on Mimas
PIA08172
Saturn
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
Sharp Focus on Mimas |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This amazing perspective view captures battered Mimas against the hazy limb of Saturn. It is obvious in such close-up images that Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) has been badly scarred by impacts over the eons. Its 130 kilometer- (80 mile-) wide crater, Herschel, lies in the darkness at right. North on Mimas is up and rotated 19 degrees to the right. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 21, 2006 using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The image was acquired at a distance of approximately 191,000 kilometers (119,000 miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 91 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (3,730 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 [ http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov ]. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org [ http://ciclops.org ]. |
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Northern Impact
PIA02009
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Northern Impact |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
19 March 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a partially-buried crater in the north polar region of Mars. The circular feature is surrounded and partly overlain by some of the many, many sand dunes in the area. The steepest slopes on each dune -- their slip faces -- face toward the southeast (lower right), indicating that the dominant winds responsible for sand transport in this region come from the northwest (upper left). In summer, the dunes in this scene would be darker than their surroundings, but in this northern springtime image, the dunes and everything else in the area are covered by carbon dioxide frost. The frost is left over from the winter which ended in January 2006. "Location near": 76.0°N, 82.2°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": lower left "Season": Northern Spring |
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Color Image of Layers in Hol
…
PIA10072
Sol (our sun)
HiRISE
| Title |
Color Image of Layers in Holden Crater, a Candidate MSL Landing Site |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Layers inside Holden Crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars are shown in enhanced color in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image was taken on December 4, 2006, as part of a campaign to examine more than two dozen candidate landing sites for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, which is scheduled for launch in 2009. Holden is one of the most interesting locations for scientists investigating the history of water on Mars because the crater contains deep gullies carved by running water, as well as excellent examples of likely lake beds and alluvial fans (sediment deposited by streams) on its floor. These deposits are about 3.7 billion years old and date back to a wetter period of early Martian history. Since that time the planet has generally been very cold and dry, and water has remained frozen in the polar regions or middle latitudes. The cliff shown in this frame is located on the southwestern part of the crater floor. Many of the bright, flat-lying, possible lake-bed deposits near the bottom of the cliff are each less than a meter or yard thick. After these lake beds were deposited, a massive flood entered Holden Crater from the southwest and deposited the layer of dark boulders and gravel that are now exposed near the top of the cliff. After the lake dried up, wind eroded the surface and formed the ripples and dunes seen in the valley. The circular pits are impact craters formed by meteorite strikes onto the ancient deposits. The area covered by this image is about 600 meters (about one-third of a mile) across, at 26.8 degrees south latitude, 34.7 degrees west longitude. North is up. The view is a composite of exposures that HiRISE took in the infrared, red and blue portions of the spectrum. Color is enhanced, a technique useful for analyzing landscapes. This is a portion of the full-frame color image catalogued as PSP_001666_1530 [ http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_001666_1530 ] in the HiRISE collection. It was taken at a local Mars time of 3:41 p.m. The scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 68 degrees, thus the sun was about 22 degrees above the horizon. The season on Mars was northern autumn. |
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South High-latitude Gullies
PIA02151
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
South High-latitude Gullies |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
1 February 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a suite of gullies on a scarp in Lyell Crater. "Location near": 69.7°S, 14.0°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Summer |
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Syrtis Crater
PIA02169
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Syrtis Crater |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
10 February 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a crater that is approximately 2 km in diameter in south central Syrtis Major Planum. The image also captures a portion of the light-toned wind streak formed in the lee (to the left) of the crater. The wind streak is likely composed of a thin coating of dust. "Location near": 1.9°N, 294.0°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Northern Summer |
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Valentine 2006
PIA02179
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Valentine 2006 |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
14 February 2006 Happy Valentine's Day from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) team! This somewhat heart-shaped, eroded and partially-filled crater is located near the southeast wall of Columbus Crater in the Mare Sirenum region of Mars. North is toward the bottom/lower left. "Location near": 29.9°S, 165.2°W "Image width": 400 meter scale bar = ~1,312 feet "Illumination from": lower right "Season": Southern Autumn |
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Chryse Plains
PIA02178
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Chryse Plains |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
13 February 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an impact crater in western Chryse Planitia that is approximately 850 meters (~2790 ft) in diameter, surrounded by a flat plain riddled by hundreds of smaller impact craters. "Location near": 27.6°N, 47.3°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": lower left "Season": Northern Winter |
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D and D (Dunes and Devils)
PIA02161
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
D and D (Dunes and Devils) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
3 February 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows streaks created by late spring and early summer dust devils on a field of dark sand dunes on the floor of Hooke Crater. "Location near": 45.0°S, 44.8°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Summer |
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Kidney-Shaped Impact
PIA02199
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Kidney-Shaped Impact |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
23 February 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an unusally-shaped (not circular) impact crater in the Elysium region of Mars. A dark-toned lava flow surface is seen in the southern (lower) portion of the image. "Location near": 5.9°N, 220.0°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": lower left "Season": Northern Winter |
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Martian Graffiti
PIA02887
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Martian Graffiti |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
9 March 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a variety of textures observed on a south middle-latitude plain east-southeast of Hellas Planitia. Dark streaks left by passing dust devils are practically ubiquitous across the scene, including the transition from the texturally-smooth area (the majority of the image) onto the circular, rough feature near the right (east) edge of the image. The circular feature might once have been the site of an impact crater, perhaps this is the remains of its floor, and the rest of the crater and the rock in which it formed was removed by erosion. "Location near": 60.4°S, 242.5°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Summer |
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Craters and Layers
PIA02896
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Craters and Layers |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
11 March 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows some typical relations between impact craters and light-toned, layered rock on Mars. The larger circular feature at the north (top) end of the image marks the location of a filled, buried crater on intermountain terrain north of Hellas Planitia. The larger crater at the southeast (lower right) corner formed by meteor impact into the layered material in which the buried crater is encased. The layered rock, in this case, has a light tone similar to the sedimentary rocks being explored by the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, thousands of kilometers away in Sinus Meridiani. "Location near": 24.9°S, 299.3°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Summer |
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Martian Streaker
PIA02920
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Martian Streaker |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
16 March 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a dust devil producing a track among dozens of other, preexisting streaks on a dusty, south middle-latitude plain on Mars. The dust devil is located just above (north/northwest of) a small, dark-floored crater. "Location near": 58.7°S, 141.1°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Summer |
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Becquerel's Layers
PIA03672
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Becquerel's Layers |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
14 January 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows light-toned, layered, sedimentary rock outcrops in Becquerel Crater in the western Arabia Terra region. The crater may once have hosted a lake, into which these sediments were deposited. Although the fine, detailed layering in Becquerel was not known until the MGS MOC first began to image these materials in 1999, the presence of a grossly-layered, light-toned feature was known from Viking orbiter images and was speculated from those data to possibly represent evidence for the presence of a former lake. "Location near": 21.5°N, 8.2°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": lower left "Season": Northern Winter |
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Dunes in Brashear
PIA03656
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Dunes in Brashear |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
8 January 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a field of dark sand dunes on the northwestern floor of Brashear Crater. The dunes formed largely from winds that blew from the southeast (lower right). "Location near": 253.7°S, 119.4°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Summer |
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Devil in Mendel
PIA03687
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Devil in Mendel |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
20 January 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a dust devil (right center) and a plethora of streaks created by previous dust devils, on the eastern floor of Mendel Crater. Dust devils are common at middle to high latitudes in the southern hemisphere during the spring and summer seasons. "Location near": 59.0°S, 198.4°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Summer |
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Impact Crater
PIA03674
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Impact Crater |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
16 January 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an impact crater, roughly the size of the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, U.S.A., in western Elysium Planitia. Light-toned, windblown ripples of sediment have accumulated in subtle troughs and in the lee -- the downwind side -- of the crater. "Location near": 28.4°N, 247.9°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": lower left "Season": Northern Winter |
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Terby's Rocks
PIA03698
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
| Title |
Terby's Rocks |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
27 January 2006 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows some of the light-toned, layered, sedimentary rock outcrops in northern Terby Crater. Terby is located along the north edge of Hellas Planitia. The sedimentary rocks might have been deposited in a greater, Hellas-filling sea -- or not. Today, the rocks are partly covered by dark-toned sediment and debris. "Location near": 27.2°S, 285.3°W "Image width": ~3 km (~1.9 mi) "Illumination from": upper left "Season": Southern Summer |
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