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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Cassini's ongoing mission and raw images _ Rev 155 - Oct 10-28, 2011 - Enceladus E15

Posted by: ugordan Oct 19 2011, 05:56 PM

First frames are down. A very rough, 4-frame clear filter NAC mosaic from 25-ish thousand km away:

Posted by: ugordan Oct 19 2011, 06:02 PM

... and I take it these are the stars of Orion's Belt:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawimagedetails/index.cfm?imageID=246210

Posted by: S_Walker Oct 19 2011, 06:52 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Oct 19 2011, 02:02 PM)

... and I take it these are the stars of Orion's Belt:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawimagedetails/index.cfm?imageID=246210

Hmmm, I doubt it; Alnilam (the middle star) doesn't have a companion star like the one in the image. Of course, I could be mistaking a CR hit for a star...

Posted by: ugordan Oct 19 2011, 07:15 PM

Wow, check out this crack-like feature: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawimagedetails/index.cfm?imageID=246215

Is that the "Isbanir Fossa" feature on the Enceladus map? Looks really conspicuous in this geometry and lighting angle.

Edit: here it is, rotated so north is roughly up and contrast-enhanced:

Posted by: Stu Oct 19 2011, 08:36 PM

Oh, great. Someone broke Enceladus...

Posted by: ngunn Oct 19 2011, 09:12 PM

Interesting. Two older cracks or grooves at right angles to that dark line appear to have beeen dislocated by the same big horizontal shear along it. However I can't see any 'sheared' craters, though some craters overprint the old grooves. I conclude that this crack has been active in two separate episodes. There was shear(strike) displacement along it at an early epoch after which it became quiescent while most of the craters formed. Recently the 'old line of weakness' has become active again, this time creating a small vertical step in the topography highlighted in this image.

Posted by: MarcF Oct 19 2011, 09:44 PM

Isbanir Fossa has been quite well imaged 30 years ago by Voyager 2:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7a/EN_Isbanir_Fossa.jpg
Anyway, it's nice to have this amazing new perspective of this region of Enceladus by Cassini !
Marc.

Posted by: Phil Stooke Oct 20 2011, 12:10 AM

A little bit of reconstruction along the fault... make of it what you will...

Phil

Posted by: toddbronco2 Oct 26 2011, 08:17 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Oct 19 2011, 10:02 AM)

... and I take it these are the stars of Orion's Belt:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawimagedetails/index.cfm?imageID=246210

Yes, the observation (for UVIS) specifically looked at epsilon Ori and zeta Ori