Cassini Captures New Images of Icy Moon Rhea

See new, spectacular, or mysterious sky images.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21592
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Cassini Captures New Images of Icy Moon Rhea

Post by bystander » Tue Mar 13, 2012 12:05 am

NASA | JPL-Caltech | Cassini Solstice Mission | CICLOPS | 2012 Mar 12
Cassini Captures New Images of Icy Moon
Rhea Rev 162 Raw Preview

These raw, unprocessed images of Saturn's second largest moon, Rhea, were taken on March 10, 2012, by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. This was a relatively distant flyby with a close-approach distance of 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers), well suited for global geologic mapping.

During the flyby, Cassini captured these distinctive views of the moon's cratered surface, creating a 30-frame mosaic of Rhea's leading hemisphere and the side of the moon that faces away from Saturn. The observations included the large Mamaldi (300 miles, or 480 kilometers, across) and Tirawa (220 miles, or 360 kilometers, across) impact basins and the 29-mile (47-kilometer) ray crater Inktomi, one of the youngest surface features on Rhea (about 950 miles, or 1,530 kilometers, across).

All of Cassini's raw images can be seen at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

<< Previous Cassini
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

Post Reply