Map of Dione (December 2011)

This global map of Saturn's moon Dione was created using images taken during flybys by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

An extensive system of bright ice cliffs created by tectonic fractures adorns the moon's trailing hemisphere, which is centered on 270 degrees west.

The map is a simple cylindrical (equidistant) projection and has a scale of 502 feet (153 meters) per pixel at the equator. The resolution of the map is 64 pixels per degree. The mean radius of Dione used for projection of this map is 350 miles (563 kilometers).

This map is an update to the version released in October 2010 (see PIA12814). This new map contains data from Cassini's December 12, 2011, flyby of Dione. Improved coverage is in the area around 45 degrees north latitude, 210 degrees west longitude.

Like other recent Dione global maps, this map has been shifted west by 0.6 degrees of longitude, compared to the 2006 version of the map (PIA08341), in order to conform to the International Astronomical Union longitude system convention for Dione.

The full unannotated tiff version can be downlinked here: PIA14914_full_2.tif. The full annotated tiff version PIA14914_full.tif. Photojournal note: these are large images and may be too large for some web browsers to handle. Users may right-click on the links to download the files to their desktop.

Map credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Notes: The above map is only a small-scale image of the actual map available for download; the actual map (jpg file) can be found here. The north polar map of Dione can be found here.

Map of Titan - April 2011

This global digital map of Saturn's moon Titan was created using images taken by the Cassini spacecraft's imaging science subsystem (ISS).

The images were taken using a filter centered at 938 nanometers, allowing researchers to examine variations in albedo (or inherent brightness) variations across the surface of Titan. Because of the scattering of light by Titan's dense atmosphere, no topographic shading is visible in these images.

The map is an equidistant projection and has a scale of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) per pixel. Actual resolution varies greatly across the map, with the best coverage (close to the map scale) along the equator near the center of the map at 180 degrees west longitude and near the left and right edges at 0 and 360 degrees west longitude. The worst coverage is on the leading hemisphere (particularly around 120 degrees west longitude) and in some northern latitudes. Coverage in the northern polar region continues to improve as the north pole comes out of shadow after Titan's northern vernal equinox in August 2009. Large dark areas, now known to be liquid-hydrocarbon-filled lakes, have been documented at high latitudes (see PIA11146).

This map is an update to the version released in February 2009 (see PIA11149). Data from the last two years, including the most recent data in the map from April 2011, have improved coverage in the southern trailing hemisphere and over portions of the north polar region.

The mean radius of Titan used for projection of this map is 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers). Titan is assumed to be spherical until a control network -- or model of the moon's shape based on multiple images tied together at defined points on the surface -- is created at some point in the future.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Map of Tethys

This global map of Saturn's moon Tethys was created using images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

This map is an update to the version released in February 2010 (see PIA12560). New data collected during Cassini's August 14, 2010, flyby of the moon are used to fill in the far northern latitudes of the map from about 75 degrees north latitude to the north pole. Coverage also improves farther south on the side of the moon facing away from Saturn. That improved coverage starts at about 40 degrees north latitude and stretches north to the pole in the area roughly west of the large Odysseus Crater (between 160 degrees and 260 degrees west longitude).

The map is an equidistant (simple cylindrical) projection and has a scale of 293 meters (960 feet) per pixel at the equator in the full size version. The mean radius of Tethys used for projection of this map is 536.3 kilometers (333.2 miles). The resolution of the map is 32 pixels per degree.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Note: For the polar views, click here for the northern hemisphere and here for the southern hemisphere.