Two more awesome pictures from the Enceladus flyby

Planetary.org ^ | Nov. 22, 2009

[Daffynition]

I'm getting to be a broken record here, but I can't stop looking at these photos from the Enceladus flyby. This first one I put together from two of the south polar plume images – you can see all four of the tiger stripes, and the plumes issuing from them, in this wide shot. I mosaicked two images, matching their levels, rotated them 180 degrees to put "ground" at the bottom and "sky" at the top, and filled in a little of the background in the corner at lower right to fill out the whole image.

Enceladan south polar vents and plumes This mosaic consists of two frames on Enceladus' south pole, captured by Cassini during its close flyby on November 21, 2009. Plumes issue from all four of the large "tiger stripes" at Enceladus' south pole -- from left to right, they trace out Alexandria, Cairo, Baghdad, and, at the extreme right edge, Damascus sulci. Only a tiny sliver of Enceladus is sunlit; the plumes are visible on the nightside of Enceladus where they have reached high enough elevations to rise out of nightside shadow and receive sunlight. A concentric circular feature lies between Alexandria and Cairo sulci. It may be a chance alignment of fractures, or it may represent some geologic feature, either exogenic (an impact scar) or endogenic (a plume or sink of some sort). Further research is necessary! Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / mosaic by Emily Lakdawalla This other one was put together by Gordan Ugarkovic – Cassini flies into the plumes! Cooooool. Wish I could have been riding along. That would be one spectacular view.

This four-frame animation is composed of images captured by Cassini as it approached for its close flyby of Enceladus on November 21, 2009. The brightest plumes in this animation are along Damascus sulcus. Plumes along Baghdad sulcus are also visible at the beginning of the animation. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / animation by Gordan Ugarkovic

[Roccus]

I think you're right. I was thinking, no atmosphere should mean no twilight. I didn't take into account the diffusing gases.

[TheOldLady]

;-) and a bump.

[Daffynition]

HAHAHA! Perfect~

Perfectly delicious, that is! ;-D

[FreedomOfExpression]

Thanks, I was afraid I had broken an unwritten rule by posting humorous (to me) pictures on an astronomy thread.
My mind went straight to “How do you pronounce that?” when I saw the name of the moon. I still don't know.

I do love the picture and animation of Enceladus. The plumes are an amazing sight! I hope they can add more frames to that animation later, if the camera kept taking pictures.

Thanks for the post, and thanks to sig for the ping!