Astronomy Picture of the Day
    


Cratered Cliffs of Ice on Saturns Tethys
<< Yesterday 12.10.2005 Tomorrow >>
Cratered Cliffs of  Ice on Saturns Tethys
Credit & Copyright: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA
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.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
 < October 2005  >
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su





12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31





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.

Based on Astronomy Picture Of the Day

Publications with keywords: Tethys - Saturn - crater
Publications with words: Tethys - Saturn - crater
See also:
All publications on this topic >>