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The latest batch of pictures from the Cassini orbiter provides provocative new views of Saturn's moons - including some fresh looks at Enceladus, a moon that has geysers of frost spouting up from cracks in its icy shell.
The raw images come from a flyby on Friday the 13th that brought the bus-sized spacecraft close to Enceladus as well as sister moons Tethys and Dione. Cassini has been circling the ringed planet for more than six years, and the pictures it has sent back have opened scientists' eyes to the wonders of Saturnian satellites.
One of the latest pictures provides a backlit view of Enceladus' geysers in action. You can easily pinpoint the fissures, which are known as "tiger stripes" because they stand out on the surface like markings on a big cat's fur. Another raw image shows the spray from farther back (61,000 miles or 98,000 kilometers away).
NASA / JPL / SSI
Damascus Sulcus in a Cassini close-up.
Yet another image provides a close-up of one of the best-known tiger stripes, Damascus Sulcus, from a distance of 1,670 miles (2,673 kilometers). Damascus Sulcus was also subjected to a heat scan by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported today.
I wondered about the haze of light-colored material surrounding the fissure in the close-up view. Does that picture actually show a tiger stripe in action? "We're not sure ... could be just ice deposits," the head of the Cassini imaging team, Carolyn Porco of the Colorado-based Space Science Institute, told me in an e-mail today. The analysis continues.
Enceladus' tigers may be the current headliner at the Cassini circus, but there's lots more to see at this show: The spacecraft's camera captured one of the best views yet of 90-mile-wide (150-mile-wide) Penelope Crater on Tethys, as well as a nice profile of many-cratered Dione.
The Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla brings the show to life by animating some of the image sequences. Don't miss seeing Enceladus cross the edge of Saturn's disk, or watching Cassini zoom in toward Enceladus' tiger stripes. And if you haven't seen them yet, don't miss clicking through our own slideshow of Cassini's greatest hits.
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Absolutly amazing
Cassini is giving us a bing Bang for the buck. This is a feather in the cap for robotic exploration. We can do more science for much less than manned missions! I am not saying to stop all manned endevors, just realize that in a cashed strapped economy, we do not have to stop exploration. Yes, they put the stops to the Orion project...but think of what some of that money can do for robotic missions to the outer planets!
I KIND OF agree with what you are saying. This mission, along with the Mars twin rovers, have provided great bang for the buck exploration, as well as lots of knowlage about Saturens and its many moons. Robotic exploration has its place (a very large place) and should be used to explore great distances which are inaccessable to humans (great distances and extreme environments). However, solely robotic exploration is kind of like visiting the grand canyon on google earth. Sure, you can learn alot, map it, describe the actions going on their, types of rocks ect. but if you could god their, learning a lot on the way that will help you in the future, as well as just having a goal, wouldn't you want to. Sure, Orion cost a lot of money, but we have already suck a lot into it. Why not just keep pushing it through? YOu might save a dollar now, but your going to spend 3 dollars tomorrow just developing a new idea. We need Orion to procede now.
can we go there... hahahaha i wouldlike too...
Way too Coool!! One day humanity will be exploring all over our solar system in person.
In a world of dreary and unsettling news this is a refreshing article. Nice photos to add to the heaps of other great science and insight of the Saturn system. Job well done at JPL/ESA this is worth the effort.
I'm with Pirate, one day....
I'd like to see our children become fascinated with science and dream of going out in space as the astronauts did going to the moon. It has been decades since experiencing that first trip to the moon. Our children have to loose the complacency. I hope they begin getting a good education, have dreams of the future. We have a great country and were pioneers in space travel. We need a new generation of explorers who will take us further.
Outstanding pictures.
Astounding. Makes you wonder what's under that ice crust. Saturnian Snow Men? (er..women?, uh..people?)
Hiya Skip, good ta see ya over here as well. I would LOVE to see what is under the ice in Enceladus, maybe a breed of intelligent pisceans similar to our whales and dolphins, perhaps something like a super intelligent squid or octopus. Maybe something totally different instead, but Life has shown us, even here on Earth, that it can adapt to almost ANY niche so we should not be surprised if we DO find life of some sort there, or even on Titan. For sure they are going to have a different view of the Universe than we are, and if they exist, learning to communicate with such would be VERY interesting for sure.
Oceanographers are already testing equipment that can be used for exploring under the ice of extraterrestrial moons. I DO hope we finish exploring Earth's oceans first, however. At the moment, we have more complete maps of Mars' surface than we do of the depths of our own oceans. Roughly 1/3 of our planet remains a mystery to us because of the miles of water over the terrain. Let's get finished the mapping work on our inner-space before we push out into the outer worlds.
What a breath taking picture of the Damascus Sulcus close up! The moment you look at this picture, you can't escape the haunting and tantalizing question - is there some kind of life underneath?
AMAZING PHOTOS.