Image of the week: Enceladus the storyteller
30 Jan 2012
A masterpiece of deep time and wrenching gravity, the tortured surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus and its fascinating ongoing geologic activity tell the story of the ancient and present struggles of one tiny world.
(JPG, 769 Kb)
Enhanced colour view of Enceladus pictured by Cassini-Huygens.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
This enhanced colour view of Enceladus is largely of the southern hemisphere and includes the south polar terrain at the bottom of the image.
Ancient craters remain somewhat pristine in some areas, but have clearly relaxed in others. Northward-trending fractures, likely caused by a change in the moon's rate of rotation and the consequent flattening of the moon's shape, rip across the southern hemisphere. The south polar terrain is marked by a striking set of `blue' fractures and encircled by a conspicuous and continuous chain of folds and ridges, testament to the forces within Enceladus that have yet to be silenced.
The mosaic was created from 21 false-colour frames taken during the Cassini spacecraft's close approaches to Enceladus on 9 March and 14 July, 2005. Images taken using filters sensitive to ultraviolet, visible and infrared light (spanning wavelengths from 338 to 930 nanometres) were combined to create the individual frames.
Cassini-Huygens is the first mission to make a long-term study of Saturn, its moons, rings and complex magnetic environment. A joint NASA/European Space Agency (ESA)/Italian Space Agency project, Cassini-Huygens involves UK scientists on both the orbiter (Cassini) and probe (Huygens). The mission has proved so successful that it has been extended until 2017.
More information about UK involvement in Cassini-Huygens can be found in the missions section of the website.
