Astronomy Picture of the Day
August 10, 2012

Features of Dione: the Wispy Terrain
Features of Dione: the Wispy Terrain

Credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute - Credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/IPF

The NASA - Cassini Spacecraft looks across the Surface of the Saturnian moon Dione and catches some intriguing details of the so-called "Wispy (---> Bright Icy Fractures) Terrain" that was first chronicled by the NASA - Voyager Probe. This fascinating heavily Fractured Terrain covers most of the Trailing Hemisphere of Dione (which is about 1123 Km, or approx. 698 miles across). This view is centered on the Wispy Terrain located at approx. 53° North Latitude and 209° West Longitude.
The image was taken in Visible Light with the NASA - Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 17, 2010. The view was acquired when the Unmanned Spacecraft was approx. 61.000 Km (about 38.000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-Cassini, or Phase, Angle of 32°. Image scale is roughly 363 meters (1190 feet) per pixel.


This frame has been colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - Cassini Spacecraft and then looked outside, towards the dimly lit Surface of the Saturnian moon Dione), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.


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