Dione's Crisscrossing Streaks

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Dione. Image credit: NASA/JPL/ Space Science Institute.

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 26, 2004
A gorgeous Dione poses for Cassini, with shadowed craters and bright, wispy streaks first observed by the Voyager spacecraft 24 years ago.

The wispy areas will be imaged at higher resolution in mid-December 2004. Subtle variations in brightness across the surface of this moon are visible here as well. Dione's diameter is 1,118 kilometers, (695 miles).

The image shows primarily the trailing hemisphere of Dione, which is the side opposite the moon's direction of motion in its orbit. The image has been rotated so that north is up.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 27, 2004, at a distance of about 1.2 million kilometers (746,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 28 degrees. The image scale is 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) per pixel.

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Cassini Shows Grandeur Of Two Saturn Moons

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 25, 2004
New views of two of Saturn's moons, Titan and Tethys, represent the most detailed look at these moons to date and show a sharp contrast between them - one is foggy and one is cratered. The Cassini spacecraft captured the puzzle pieces for the full-disc view of the mysterious Titan during its first close encounter on Oct. 26, 2004. The mosaic comprises nine images taken at distances ranging from 650,000 kilometers to 300,000 kilometers.