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Saturn's Epimetheus up-close and colorful NASA/JPL NEWS RELEASE Posted: April 30, 2005
The color of Epimetheus in this view appears to vary in a non-uniform way across the different facets of the moon's irregular surface. Usually, color differences among planetary terrains identify regional variations in the chemical composition of surface materials. However, surface color variations can also be caused by wavelength-dependent differences in the way a particular material reflects light at different lighting angles. The color variation in this false-color view suggests such "photometric effects" because the surface appears to have a more bluish cast in areas where sunlight strikes the surface at greater angles. This false color view combines images obtained using filters sensitive to ultraviolet, polarized green and infrared light. The images were taken at a Sun-Epimetheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 115 degrees, thus part of the moon is in shadow to the right. This view shows an area seen only very obliquely by NASA's Voyager spacecraft. The scene has been rotated so that north on Epimetheus is up. The slightly reddish feature in the lower left is a crater named Pollux. The large crater just below center is Hilairea, which has a diameter of about 33 kilometers (21 miles). At 116 kilometers (72 miles) across, Epimetheus is slightly smaller than its companion moon, Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across), which orbits at essentially the same distance from Saturn. The images for this color composite were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 74,600 kilometers (46,350 miles) from Epimetheus. Resolution in the original images was about 450 meters (1,480 feet) per pixel. This view has been magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. |
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Michael Griffin, NASA's new administrator, holds his first news conference from agency headquarters to discuss shuttle return to flight, exploration plans and Hubble servicing. (46min 44sec file)
The Russian Soyuz TMA-6 capsule docks to the space station's Pirs module, delivering the Expedition 11 to the outpost for a half-year mission. (4min 15sec file)
The Russian Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft is launched to put the International Space Station's Expedition 11 crew in Earth orbit.
Highlights of pre-flight work involving the redesigned external fuel tank for the space shuttle return to flight mission is packaged into this movie with narration. (6min 32sec file)