Cratered Cliffs of Ice on Saturns Tethys
Explanation:
The surface of
Saturn's
moon Tethys is riddled with icy cliffs and craters.
The most detailed images ever taken of
Tethys
were captured late last month as the robot
Cassini spacecraft
swooped past the frozen ice moon.
The
above image was taken from about 32,000 kilometers distant and
shows a jagged landscape of long cliffs covered with craters.
At the bottom of many craters appears some sort of unknown light-colored substance,
in contrast to the unknown dark substance that appears at the bottom of Saturn's
moon
Hyperion.
Tethys is one of the
larger moons of Saturn, spanning about 1,000 kilometers across.
The density of
Tethys indicates a composition
almost entirely of
water ice.
Tethys
is thought to have been predominantly liquid sometime in its distant past,
creating some of its long ice-
cliffs
as it cracked during
freezing.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
