Enceladus Plume Search, Nov. 27 Options

[jmknapp]

Interesting item in the science plan kernel (S16) just released to the NAIF website:

OBSERVATION_ID: S1629

SEQUENCE: S16

OBSERVATION_TITLE: Plume Search

SCIENCE_OBJECTIVE: Hope to detect/observe plumes, whether from volcanic activity or geysers.

OBS_DESCRIPTION: Point and stare.

SUBSYSTEM: ISS

PRIMARY_POINTING: ISS_NAC to Enceladus (0.0,5.0,0.0 deg. offset)

REQUEST_ID: ISS_018EN_PLUMES001_PRIME

REQUEST_TITLE: ENCELADUS Geyser/Plume Search

REQ_DESCRIPTION: 1;ENCELADUS Geyser/Plume Search 1x1xNPp -- 3 different exposures

BEGIN_TIME: 2005 NOV 27 19:00:00 UTC

END_TIME: 2005 NOV 27 20:00:00 UTC

[akuo]

Looking at the raws I noticed that the whole background of the images is light, not just the plumes. This is especially evident on the overexposed images of encaladus:


Notice how the background space is lighter than the "dark side" of Encaladus. Does this mean that plume material is all around, maybe making up a donut of the material around Encaladus's orbit?

[EccentricAnomaly]

The E-Ring is just such a donut of material around Enceladus' orbit, and is probably responsible for the light background as well. See here: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...cfm?imageID=808 for a depiction of the E-ring.

Looking at the raws I noticed that the whole background of the images is light, not just the plumes. This is especially evident on the overexposed images of encaladus:


Notice how the background space is lighter than the "dark side" of  Encaladus. Does this mean that plume material is all around, maybe making up a donut of the material around Encaladus's orbit?