The familiar icon of a crescent moon is rendered alien in this view of Enceladus bisecting a slender crescent of Saturnian daylight.
Another snap from the same flyby shows Enceladus' characteristic geysers.
Cassini caught a good portrait here of one of Saturn's many smaller, potato-shaped moons: Helene.
Saturn's second largest moon, Rhea, eclipses Titan in a grab for the limelight. Rhea is about a million kilometres away in this image, and Titan 2 million.
Saturn has many cratered, icy moons, but Tethys here shows off one of its most remarkable features: Ithaca Chasma, a massive canyon dwarfed only by Valles Marineris on Mars.
Happy Christmas everyone - whatever planet, moon or ring-system you may call home.
(All images credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.)
5 comments:
Merry Christmas Pacian and Space Cat! :)
Merry Christmas! I wonder why some of the moons are perfectly round while others are not. Hmmm.
Good Yule, Happy (belated) Solstice. Wonderfully stark images.
Happy, merry Merry Christmas, Pacian and Space Cat!
@All: Thanks, you too!
@Michelle: It's a matter of size, more or less. The more massive moons have stronger gravity, which smooths out their bumps and irregularities.
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