Thursday, November 05, 2009

Enceladus' Icy Surface


Cassini captured this raw image on its Nov. 02, 2009, flyby of Enceladus. The camera was pointing toward Enceladus from approximately 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) away.

This image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the NASA Planetary Data System in 2010.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute