Enceladus and Saturn's Rings

The Cassini spacecraft looks over cratered and tectonically deformed terrain on Saturn's moon Enceladus as the camera also catches a glimpse of the planet's rings in the background. The image was captured during the spacecraft's flyby of Enceladus on November 30, 2010.

Geologically young terrain in the middle latitudes of the moon gives way to older, cratered terrain in the northern latitudes. See PIA11685 to learn more. This view is centered on terrain at 41 degrees north latitude, 202 degrees west longitude. North on Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles, across) is up and rotated 28 degrees to the right.

This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 46,000 kilometers (29,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 14 degrees. Image scale is 276 meters (906 feet) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Hyperion

The Cassini spacecraft captures a view of the southern latitudes of Saturn's tumbling moon Hyperion.

To learn more about this spongy moon and how it tumbles in its orbit, see PIA06243, PIA07761 and PIA07740. Lit terrain seen here is mostly in the southern hemisphere of Hyperion (270 kilometers, or 168 miles across). The south pole of the moon is near the bottom of the illuminated terrain seen here.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on November 28, 2010. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 80,000 kilometers (50,000 miles) from Hyperion and at a Sun-Hyperion-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 98 degrees. Image scale is 476 meters (1,562 feet) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Dione and Enceladus

On the top right of this Cassini spacecraft image, Saturn's moon Dione may appear closer to the spacecraft because it is larger than the moon Enceladus in the lower left. However, Enceladus was actually closer to the spacecraft when this image was captured.

Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles, across) is actually more than twice the size of Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles, across). Dione's bright "wispy" terrain can be seen here. See PIA10560 and PIA06163 to learn more about this terrain. This view looks toward the area between the trailing hemisphere and Saturn-facing side of Dione.

The highly reflective surface of Enceladus also stands out here. This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere of Enceladus.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on December 1, 2010. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 510,000 kilometers (317,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 7 degrees. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 830,000 kilometers (516,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 8 degrees. Image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel on Enceladus and 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel on Dione.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Enceladus

Saturn's moon Enceladus brightly reflects sunlight before a backdrop of the planet's rings and the rings' shadows cast onto the planet.

The Cassini spacecraft captured this snapshot during its flyby of the moon on November 30, 2010. This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across). North on Enceladus is up and rotated 28 degrees to the right.

This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 53,000 kilometers (33,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 14 degrees. Image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute