* Astronomy

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RE: Dione

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This image of Dione was taken on February 22, 2006 by the Cassini space probe when it was approximately 1,408,215 kilometres away.

The image was taken using the CL1 and GRN filters.

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This close-up of Dione's icy surface shows deeply shadowed craters near the terminator, as well as a group of roughly linear faults above centre.

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The terrain shown here is on the moon's leading hemisphere. North on Dione is up and tilted 21 degrees to the right.

The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 152,000 kilometres from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 109 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 904 meters per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.

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This false colour image shows the leading hemisphere of Dione.
To create this view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional colour differences.

This "colour map" was then superposed over a clear-filter image. The origin of the colour differences is not yet understood, but may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil.
Terrain visible here is on the moon's leading hemisphere. North on Dione is up and rotated 17 degrees to the right.

All images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 597,000 kilometres from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 21 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometres per pixel.

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Dione Map

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RE: Dione

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Carthage Linea

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RE: Dione

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Saturn's moon Dione is about to swing around the edge of the thin F ring in this colour view. More than one thin strand of the F ring's tight spiral can be seen here.

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The terrain seen on Dione is on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere. The diameter of Dione is 1,126 kilometres.

Images taken using infrared, green and ultraviolet spectral filters were composited to create this colour view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometres from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 48 degrees. The image scale is 12 kilometres per pixel.

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The cratered and cracked disk of Saturn's moon Dione looms ahead in this mosaic of images taken by Cassini on Oct. 11, 2005, as it neared its close encounter with the icy moon.

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In this false-colour mosaic, the clear-filter images are overlain by colour composited from (compressed) infrared, green and ultraviolet images. The colours have been specially processed to accentuate subtle changes in the spectral properties of Dione's surface materials.
To create the colour view, the colour images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional colour differences. This "colour map" was then superimposed over the clear-filter mosaic.
Multiple generations of tectonics can be seen in this full-disk view. Near the eastern limb (at the right) are tectonic fractures, which may be similar to the bright, braided canyons that make up Dione's noted wispy terrain. Some of the bright, wispy markings can be seen at the left.

The softer ridges and troughs at the upper right appear to be about the same age as the cratering seen in that region. These appear to be older than the fracturing seen in the wispy terrain and the fractures seen at the right.
Scientists continue to be intrigued by the strikingly linear features seen crisscrossing the southern latitudes. The fine latitudinal streaks appear to crosscut everything, and appear to be the youngest feature type in this region of Dione.
A large impact basin hugs the south polar region (at the bottom, right of centre). Northeast of the basin is a region of terrain that is relatively smooth, compared to the rest of the moon. This view of Dione is centred on 1.3 degrees south latitude, 167.6 degrees west longitude.

The images in the mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at distances ranging from of 55,280 to 27,180 kilometres from Dione. The full-size versions of the mosaics have an image scale of 316 meters per pixel.