Cassini-Huygens
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Saturn sits nested in its rings of ice as Cassini once again plunges toward the graceful giant. This natural color mosaic was acquired by the Cassini spacecraft as it soared 39 degrees above the unilluminated side of the rings. Little light makes its way through the rings to be scattered in Cassini's direction in this viewing geometry, making the rings appear somewhat dark compared to the reflective planet. Bright clouds play in the blue-gray skies of the north. The ring shadows continue to caress the planet as they slide farther south toward their momentary disappearance during equinox in 2009. The rings' reflected light illuminates the southern hemisphere on Saturn's night side. Three of Saturn's moons are visible in this image: Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) at the 2 o'clock position, Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) at the 4 o'clock position and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) at the 8 o'clock position. Pandora is a faint speck just outside the narrow F ring. The view combines 45 images -- 15 separate sets of red, green and blue images--taken over the course of about two hours, as Cassini scanned across the entire main ring system. The images in this view were obtained on May 9, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 62 kilometers (39 miles) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
On the Final Frontier
Cassini delivers this stunning vista showing small, battered Epimetheus and smog-enshrouded Titan, with Saturn's A and F rings stretching across the scene. The color information in the colorized view is completely artificial: it is derived from red, green and blue images taken at nearly the same time and phase angle as the clear filter image. This color information was overlaid onto the previously released clear filter view ( see PIA07786) in order to approximate the scene as it might appear to human eyes. The prominent dark region visible in the A ring is the Encke gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide), in which the moon Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) and several narrow ringlets reside. Moon-driven features which score the A ring can easily be seen to the left and right of the Encke gap. A couple of bright clumps can be seen in the F ring. Epimetheus is 116 kilometers (72 miles) across and giant Titan is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 28, 2006, at a distance of approximately 667,000 kilometers (415,000 miles) from Epimetheus and 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Titan. The image captures the illuminated side of the rings. The image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel on Epimetheus and 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Titan. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
Titan Beyond the Rings
The opposition effect, a brightness surge that is visible on Saturn's rings when the sun is directly behind the spacecraft, is captured here as a colorful halo of light moving across Saturn's sunlit rings. The rainbow of color seen here is actually an artifact and a by-product of the spot's movement and the way the color image was produced. Cassini acquires color images by taking sequential exposures using red, green and blue spectral filters, which are then composited together to form a color view. The bright patch traveled across the rings between exposures taken for this view, creating a series of three colorful spots showing its position at three separate moments. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 9° below the ringplane. The images in this view were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 12, 2007, at a distance of approximately 523,000 kilometers (325,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 31 kilometers (19 miles) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
Rainbow on the Rings
The murky orange disk of Saturn's moon Titan glides past -- a silent, floating sphere transiting Saturn. Titan's photochemical smog completely obscures the surface in such natural color views. Its high-altitude hazes are visible against the disk of Saturn as they attenuate the light reflected by the planet. Titan is 5,150 kilometers (3200 miles) across. The view was acquired from less than a degree above Saturn's ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 1, 2007, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Titan. Image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
Titan Makes Contact
Cassini soars above the many pits and basins in the rolling landscape of Saturn's moon Iapetus. This mosaic view looks out onto an area close to the northern bright/dark boundary, but still within the dark region, Cassini Regio. Near upper left is a large crater with terraced walls, a mostly flat floor and a prominent group of peaks in its center. The sharp features make this likely one of the youngest craters in this area of Iapetus. The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at a distance of approximately 13,500 kilometers (8,400 miles) from Iapetus and at a sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 139°. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
Iapetan Geography
The vast expanse of the crater Odysseus spreads out below Cassini in this mosaic view of Saturn's moon Tethys. The crater (450 kilometers or 280 miles across) is a remarkably well-preserved example of an ancient multi-ringed impact basin: The outer ring is defined by steep, cliff-like walls that descend to generally broad internal terraces. The inner ring is formed by a prominent, crown-shaped, 140-kilometer (88-mile) diameter circular band of icy mountains. Multi-ring basins are seen on rocky bodies as well as icy ones. The complex internal structure and multi-ringed nature of these very large basins are believed to arise from the rebound of intense shock waves that penetrated the body at the time of impact. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across. The view was obtained by the Cassini spacecraft on Aug. 30, 2007, from a distance of approximately 97,000 kilometers (60,000 miles) and at a sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 51 degrees. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
The Crown of Tethys
This false-color view was created by combining three clear filter images. This image product was then specially processed to enhance the individual jets that compose the plume. Some artifacts due to the processing are present in the image. The final product was colored as blue for dramatic effect. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 27, 2005 at a distance of approximately 148,000 kilometers (92,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 161 degrees. Scale in the original images is about 880 meters (0.5 mile) per pixel. This view has been magnified by a factor of two from the original images. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
Jet Blue
This map of the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus shows the correlation between jet sources identified in Cassini imaging data and hot spots on the surface located by the composite infrared spectrometer instrument. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
Enceladus Jet Sources
This false-color mosaic shows the entire hemisphere of Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) visible from Cassini on the outbound leg of its encounter with the two-toned moon in Sept. 2007. The central longitude of the trailing hemisphere is 24 degrees to the left of the mosaic's center. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
The Other Side of Iapetus
Cassini zooms in, for the first time, on the patchy, bright and dark mountains originally identified in images from the NASA Voyager spacecraft taken more than 25 years earlier. The image was acquired during Cassini's only close flyby of Iapetus, a two-toned moon of Saturn. The terrain seen here is located on the equator of Iapetus at approximately 199 degrees west longitude, in the transition region between the moon's bright and dark hemispheres. North is up. The image was taken on Sept. 10, 2007, with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 9,240 kilometers (5,740 miles) from Iapetus. Image scale is 55 meters (180 feet) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
The 'Voyager' Mountains
Dark material splatters the walls and floors of craters in the surreal, frozen wastelands of Iapetus. This image shows terrain in the transition region between the moon's dark leading hemisphere and its bright trailing hemisphere. The view was acquired during Cassini's only close flyby of the two-toned Saturn moon. The image was taken on Sept. 10, 2007, with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 6,030 kilometers (3,750 miles) from Iapetus. Image scale is 36 meters (118 feet) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
Inky Stains on a Frozen Moon
Cassini surveys a bright landscape coated by dark material on Iapetus. This image shows terrain in the transition region between the moon's dark leading hemisphere and its bright trailing hemisphere. The view was acquired during Cassini's only close flyby of the two-toned Saturn moon. The image was taken on Sept. 10, 2007, with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 5,260 kilometers (3,270 miles) from Iapetus. Image scale is 32 meters (105 feet) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
Coated Craters
This stunning close-up view shows mountainous terrain that reaches about 10 kilometers (6 miles) high along the unique equatorial ridge of Iapetus. The view was acquired during Cassini's only close flyby of the two-toned Saturn moon. Above the middle of the image can be seen a place where an impact has exposed the bright ice beneath the dark overlying material. The image was taken on Sept. 10, 2007, with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 3,870 kilometers (2,400 miles) from Iapetus. Image scale is 23 meters (75 feet) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
The Himalayas of Iapetus
This north polar image of Titan was acquired by Cassini's radar instrument on May 12, 2007. Credit: NASA/JPL
 
 
Cassini's radar view from Titan flyby T30
This north polar image of Titan was acquired by Cassini's radar instrument on May 12, 2007. Credit: NASA/JPL
 
 
Cassini's radar view from Titan flyby T30
Cassini's radar instrument obtained its second in a series of four north polar swaths of Titan on April 10, 2007. Credit: NASA/JPL
 
 
Cassini's radar view from Titan flyby T28
Cassini's radar instrument obtained its second in a series of four north polar swaths of Titan on April 10, 2007. Credit: NASA/JPL
 
 
Cassini's radar view from Titan flyby T28
Cassini's radar instrument obtained its second in a series of four north polar swaths of Titan on April 10, 2007. Credit: NASA/JPL
 
 
Cassini's radar view from Titan flyby T28
Iapetus is 1,436 kilometers (892 miles) across. The view is centered on the moon's equator and on roughly 90 degrees west longitude -- a location that always faces the direction of Iapetus's orbital motion around Saturn and has been oriented so that the north pole is toward the top of the picture. Cassini acquired the images in this mosaic with its narrow angle camera on Dec. 31, 2004, at a distance of about 172,400 kilometers (107,124 miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 50 degrees. The image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) per pixel. The image has been contrast enhanced to aid visibility of surface features. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
Iapetus
This false-color view of Saturn's moon Hyperion reveals crisp details across the strange, tumbling moon's surface. Differences in color could represent differences in the composition of surface materials. The view was obtained during Cassini's close flyby on Sept. 26, 2005. Hyperion has a notably reddish tint when viewed in natural color. The red color was toned down in this false-color view, and the other hues were enhanced, in order to make more subtle color variations across Hyperion's surface more apparent. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
 
 
Odd World
In this ultraviolet image of Hyperion, produced using data taken with Cassini's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph during the September 2005 close flyby, brightness contrasts are due to both topographic and compositional variations across the surface. The brightest regions are exposed water ice in the rim of the crater that dominates the hemisphere in view. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Colorado/Space Science Institute
 
 
Hyperion's Icy Surface
This is a color map of the composition of a portion of Saturn's moon Hyperion's surface about 75 kilometers (45 miles) on a side. In this map, blue shows the maximum exposure of frozen water, red denotes carbon dioxide ice (
 
 
Hyperion's Kaleidoscope of Color
This color map shows the composition of a portion of Hyperion's surface determined with the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer aboard the Cassini spacecraft. Blue shows the maximum exposure of frozen water, red denotes carbon dioxide ice (
 
 
Organics Sprinkled on Hyperion
This image of Titan's surface, obtained by Huygens' DISR imager, shows patterns of tectonic and fluid-flow activity. The tectonic patterns are indicated by blue lines; the drainage divide is indicated by the red line; flow directions are indicated by the green arrows. The Huygens landing site is marked by a white cross. Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
 
 
Tectonic and fluid-flow patterns on Titan
This composite of Huygens DISR images shows patterns of drainage, flow and erosion in the Huygens landing site region. The top panel shows two types of drainage networks in the bright region about 5-10 kilometres north of the landing site. The lower-left panel is a high-resolution view of the erosional channels around the landing site. The lower right panel is a medium-resolution view of bright ridges standing above the dark plains carved by surface flows. Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
 
 
Drainage, flow and erosion on the Huygens landing site
This digital terrain model (DTM) was constructed thanks to pairs of stereo images obtained by Huygens's DISR imaging instrument. The images present no vertical exaggeration, and provide perspective views of the surface (45° inclination). The area shown here is roughly 3 by 5 kilometres wide. The colour-code is such that the difference in elevation between blue and red areas is about 250 metres. Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/SOCET SET-BAE
 
 
Titan's Rugged Surface
Flying over the unlit side of Saturn's rings, the Cassini spacecraft captures Saturn's glow, represented in brilliant shades of electric blue, sapphire and mint green, while the planet's shadow casts a wide net on the rings. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
 
 
Neon Saturn
On May 12, 2007, Cassini completed its 31st flyby of Saturn's moon Titan, which the team calls T30. The radar instrument obtained this image showing the coastline and numerous island groups of a portion of a large sea, consistent with the larger sea seen by the Cassini imaging instrument. The image as shown is about 160 kilometers (100 miles) by 270 kilometers (170 miles) at 300-meter (980-foot) resolution. The image is centered near 70 degrees north latitude and 310 west longitude. Credit: NASA/JPL
 
 
Coasts and Drowned Mountains
This image was acquired on Oct. 29, 2006, from an average distance of 902,000 kilometers (560,400 miles) above the cloud tops of Saturn. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
 
 
Saturn's Active North Pole
This image was acquired with the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on Oct. 30, 2006, from an average distance of 1.3 million kilometers (807,782 miles). Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
 
 
Saturn's Strange Hexagon
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