* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Tethys

Blobrana · L

Saturn's moon Tethys, named for a sea goddess, shows off two of its more puzzling features in this Cassini image.

Ithaca Chasma, near lower right, stretches for more than 1,000 kilometres across the moon's surface. The origin of this canyon system, which is 100 kilometres across on average, is not completely understood, but might have resulted from the impact that created the giant crater Odysseus.
Tethys is 1,071 kilometres across.
Also notable in this view is the dark band that girdles the moon's equator. The nature of this feature may be better understood following Cassini's planned close flyby in September, 2005.
The lit surface visible here is on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere; north on Tethys is straight up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 22, 2005, at a distance of approximately 884,000 kilometres from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 97 degrees.
Resolution in the original image was 5 kilometres per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.

Blobrana · L

Saturn's icy moon Tethys displays a very old impact basin here, just southeast of its giant canyon system, Ithaca Chasma.
The large crater has been degraded, or softened, by time and a more recent impact has formed a smaller crater near its southern edge.

This large basin was first seen in images from the NASA Voyager mission.
Tethys is 1,071 kilometres across.

A sharper, presumably younger crater called Penelope lies near the eastern limb, at the 3 o'clock position. This view shows principally the trailing hemisphere on Tethys.
North is directly up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometres from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 31 degrees.
Resolution in the original image was 6 kilometres per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.

Blobrana · L

This image was taken on June 21, 2005 and received on Earth June 21, 2005, by the Cassini spacecraft.

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The camera was pointing toward Tethys that was approximately 2,223,355 kilometres away.
The image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters.

Blobrana · L

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This image was taken on May 22, 2005 by the Cassini spacecraft and received on Earth May 22, 2005. The camera was pointing toward Tethys at approximately 880,816 kilometres away, and the image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters.