Enceladus E03 Flyby Options

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Some scientists have suggested that material coming from Enceladus maybe be forming Saturn's E ring. One of the objectives of the flyby was to look for evidence of "ice volcanoes".

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...eiImageID=32339

In the RAW image above, you can see a faint "stream" coming off Enceladus. Is it a simple case of the camera over exposing a specific feature on the moon, producing a flare like feature coming off the surface - or evidence of something else? What do you think?

[tedstryk]

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...8/W00004837.jpg

One of the close images of Enceladus is down. And this is WIDE ANGLE!!!!!

[OWW]

Strange. The Ciclops site says it is a narrow angle image taken from 240000 km.
http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/view.php?id=861

[tedstryk]

It has now disappeared from all raw searches, although the link still works. This convinces me that there are more images from the flyby they are not showing. Not that I blame them. But I am convinced there are more.

[volcanopele]

I will try to address some of the questions here:

ObsessedWithWorlds: Obviously that distance is not correct. That is a Wide-angle image and the caption writer probably didn't realize that when he wrote it. Except that still doesn't explain it since that image has a pixel scale of 90 m/pixel. For orientation purposes, the squarish feature near the top of that frame, half way between the right edge of the frame and the limb, is the same feature as the squarish "crater" below and to the right of center in http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/view.php?id=846

Sunspot: we initially got excited about that image as well. I have 60 emails from last night to prove it Unfortunately, it looks like that's just a camera effect, similar to one seen last month in the same area in crescent views of Enceladus (at differing lat/lons), Rhea, and Mimas.

tedstryk: we were supposed to have 9 m/pixel imaging near the limb coinciding with that 90 m/pixel wide-angle image. Unfortunately, it looks like we missed Enceladus just bearly. This was not unexpected, the pointing was expected to be not perfect for this encounter since we couldn't do a live update following the Titan flyby. In fact, that 85-175 m/pixel global mosaic was supposed to be full disk but the mosaic was off by half a frame to a third of Enceladus. The 60 m/pixel frame seem at http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/view.php?id=848 was planned to be centered near the N-S spotted terrain seen at http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/view.php?id=855 .

fredk: that is saturn in the background. If you merge UV3-GRN-IR3, you get a green saturn

[DEChengst]

Have you tried to apply a kind of black to white gradient Y mask to each frames before stitching? Maybe this could help to correct brighness differences?

I'm no Photoshop expert so I wouldn't know how to do that

[alan]

If that is a cryoflow in this image perhaps the dark spots are skylights

http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/ima...8/N00028183.jpg

[tedstryk]

Does anyone know the ground track yet for e4?

[Decepticon]

JPL will wait till the last few days before the flyby to release that.

Maybe Bjorn might post something on it?

[OWW]

Nice composition. Enceladus and the rings:

[tedstryk]

Check this one out!

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Dione and the rings...... and possibly tiny Janus?

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...eiImageID=32866

[alan]

It looks like the latest gravity assist put Cassini nearly in the ring plane, the rings are almost edge-on now.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...8/W00005056.jpg

We probably will be seeing more shots with multiple moons like the one of Dione and Titan.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...eiImageID=32817

[tedstryk]

It is too bad there isn't a shorter exposure twin for that image.