Saturns Moon Enceladus #1 is a photograph by Stocktrek Images which was uploaded on December 13th, 2011.
Saturns Moon Enceladus #1
March 12, 2008 - This three-image mosaic is the highest resolution view obtained of Enceladus' north polar region. The view looks southward over... more
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Saturns Moon Enceladus #1
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Stocktrek Images
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March 12, 2008 - This three-image mosaic is the highest resolution view obtained of Enceladus' north polar region. The view looks southward over cratered plains from high above the north pole of Enceladus. Cassini's March 2008 flyby of Enceladus was designed to directly investigate the ongoing plume activity at the moon's south pole, but the path of the spacecraft allowed investigation of older evidence for internal activity near the north pole. Compared to much of the moon's southern hemisphere, the south polar region in particular, the north polar region is much older and covered with craters. These craters are captured at different stages of disruption and alteration by tectonic activity and probably past heating from below. Many of the craters seen here are sliced by small parallel cracks that seem to be ubiquitous throughout the old cratered terrains on Enceladus. The mosaic also shows a variety of impact crater shapes, some with bowed-up floors and smaller craters within, very likely indicating that the icy crust in this area was at some time warmer than at present. While this conclusion was previously reached from Voyager spacecraft images, these new data provide a much more detailed look at the fractures that modify the surface. This data will give a significantly improved comparison of the geologic history at the satellite’s north pole with that at the south pole. Two prominent craters in this view, Ali Baba and Aladdin (the two overlapping craters near center), are among the largest craters known on Enceladus. Several areas of much younger terrain are visible in this mosaic, including Samarkand Sulci, an area of disrupted terrain that runs north-south at left of center, and the leading hemisphere terrain, a region, seen at right, filled with tectonic fractures, ridges and ridged terrain.Samarkand Sulci slices through some prominent craters that were seen in Voyager images. At that time, it was thought that the portions of the craters that exten
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December 13th, 2011
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