File:EN003 False Color Look at Enceladus.jpg

False-color view of Saturn's moon Enceladus

Original caption released with image:

A fresh look at Enceladus (505 kilometers, 314 miles across) reveals tempting new details about the brightest real estate in the Solar System. This falsely-colored image shows that some of the linear features on Enceladus have a slightly different color from their surroundings. Different colors of ice may be caused by different compositions or different ice crystal sizes, either of which can indicate different formation mechanisms or different ages.

The new view shows some of the smooth plains noted in Voyager and earlier Cassini images. At about the 7 o’clock position are interwoven lineament patterns that are reminiscent of the wispy-terrain features on Dione and Rhea.

Imaging scientists are unsure as to whether these brighter markings are evidence for contamination of the ice in the linear features by some other material. Analysis of high resolution images of Enceladus should also show whether, like the surprising terrain seen on Dione, the "wisps" are curvilinear fractures that are not quite resolved at this scale.

This false color view combines images obtained using filters sensitive to polarized green and infrared light. The images were obtained with the narrow angle camera on February 16, 2005, from distances ranging from 179,727 to 179,601 kilometers (111,677 to 111,599 miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 22 degrees. Resolution in the image is about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.