Cruising past Saturn's moon Dione this past weekend, NASA's Cassini spacecraft got its best look yet at the north polar region of this small, icy moon and returned stark raw images of the fractured, cratered surface.
The new images also show new views of the long, bright canyon ice walls, which scientists working with NASA's Voyager spacecraft called "wispy terrain" in the early 1980s. These ice walls thread along the surface of the moon's trailing hemisphere and cut across craters.
High resolution image
Cassini obtained this image of Saturn's moon Dione on Sept. 3, 2010. The camera was pointing toward Dione at approximately 44,173 kilometers (27,448 miles) away. This image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the NASA Planetary Data System in 2011.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
High resolution image
Cassini obtained this image of Saturn's moon Dione on Sept. 3, 2010. The camera was pointing toward Dione at approximately 49,969 kilometers (31,049 miles) away. This image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the NASA Planetary Data System in 2011.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
High resolution image
Cassini spacecraft obtained this image of Saturn's moon Dione on Sept. 3, 2010. The camera was pointing toward Dione at approximately 39,789 kilometers (24,724 miles) away. This image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the NASA Planetary Data System in 2011.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
