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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Cassini's ongoing mission and raw images _ new Dione images

Posted by: Phil Stooke Dec 18 2006, 01:29 AM

Beautiful new images of Dione... I like the small patch of (fairly) smooth plains near the terminator, and the long ridge.


http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS26/N00073141.jpg

Phil

Posted by: Phil Stooke Dec 18 2006, 03:15 AM

This is a composite of two of the new frames, enlarged 2x. There is very faint Saturnshine on the dark side.

Phil

Posted by: Phil Stooke Dec 18 2006, 03:26 AM

Only a tiny sliver will be new territory for Steve's map. The rough terrain at right, clearly different from the smoother area at the terminator, is the ejecta blanket of the big southern hemisphere basin.

Phil

Posted by: Bart Dec 19 2006, 12:46 AM

I'm surprised noone's commented on this picture of Dione taken on the 15th. Very provocative.


Maybe something, maybe not. ph34r.gif

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS26/N00073136.jpg

Posted by: tasp Dec 19 2006, 03:08 AM

I viewed the image full size, and it appears the vertical streaks are all parallel and not diverging or radial to Dione. Also, there appears to be a large diffuse ring of scattered light in the picture. Additionally, the notorious horizontal banding we saw in the Cassini first ring passage are evident.

I am not a skilled photo analyst, but I reluctantly suspect this picture doesn't show anything exciting.

Posted by: ugordan Dec 19 2006, 08:13 AM

QUOTE (tasp @ Dec 19 2006, 04:08 AM) *
I am not a skilled photo analyst, but I reluctantly suspect this picture doesn't show anything exciting.

I second that. This is typical of scattered light when the bright object (bright actually depending solely on the exposure used) is located just outside of the frame.

Posted by: MarcF Dec 19 2006, 07:32 PM

"I am not a skilled photo analyst, but I reluctantly suspect this picture doesn't show anything exciting."

I also agree. However, I think this picture shows that they are still looking for a dionean plume.
Marc.

Posted by: ugordan Dec 19 2006, 07:36 PM

It wouldn't be far-fetched to suggest they merely missed the moon. It was known to happen before. The NAC imposes pretty tight pointing constraints. Looking for a plume at such a low phase wouldn't be very effective mainly due to this scattered light stuff.

Posted by: MarcF Dec 19 2006, 08:00 PM

So why are there 2 pictures like that, one of which is over-exposed ?

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS26/N00073135.jpg

The other pictures all catched perfectly Dione.
Sorry, I'm just trying to keep my hopes alive !!
Marc.

Posted by: volcanopele Dec 19 2006, 08:19 PM

QUOTE (MarcF @ Dec 19 2006, 01:00 PM) *
So why are there 2 pictures like that, one of which is over-exposed ?

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS26/N00073135.jpg

The other pictures all catched perfectly Dione.
Sorry, I'm just trying to keep my hopes alive !!
Marc.

Not sure why those images were mistargeted, may have something to do with the fact that those were taken while riding along with VIMS. But given the phase angle of those images, I'd have to agree with ugordan.

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