[meteorite-list] Cassini Returns Images of Battered Saturn Moon Rhea

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:00:33 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201303111900.r2BJ0XlS002461_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-089

Cassini Returns Images of Battered Saturn Moon
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 11, 2013

Following its last close flyby of Saturn's moon Rhea, NASA's Cassini
spacecraft captured these raw, unprocessed images of the battered icy
moon. They show an ancient, cratered surface bearing the scars of
collisions with many space rocks. Scientists are still trying to
understand some of the curious features they see in these Rhea images,
including a curving, narrow fracture or a graben, which is a block of
ground lower than its surroundings and bordered by cliffs on either
side. This feature looks remarkably recent, cutting most of the craters
it crosses, with only a few small craters superimposed.

Cassini flew by Rhea at an altitude of 620 miles (997 kilometers) on
March 9, 2013. This flyby was designed primarily for the radio science
sub-system to measure Rhea's gravity field. During closest approach and
while the radio science sub-system was measuring the icy satellite's
gravity field, the imaging team rode along and captured 12 images of
Rhea's rough and icy surface. Outbound from Rhea, Cassini's cameras
captured a set of global images from a distance of about 167,000 miles
(269,000 kilometers).

Data from Cassini's cosmic dust analyzer were also collected to try to
detect any dusty debris flying off the surface from tiny meteoroid
bombardments. These data will help scientists understand the rate at
which "foreign" objects are raining into the Saturn system.

This was the mission's fourth close encounter with Rhea. The spacecraft
will pass the moon, but at a much greater distance, in a few years.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of Caltech. For more
information on Cassini, visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook at jpl.nasa.gov

2013-089
Received on Mon 11 Mar 2013 03:00:33 PM PDT