A Subtle Difference
Posted by Prateek Tripathi on Monday, April 5, 2010
Subtle color differences on Saturn's moon Mimas are apparent in this
false-color view of Herschel Crater captured by NASA's Cassini
spacecraft during its closest-ever flyby of that moon. The image shows
terrain-dependent color variations, particularly the contrast between
the bluish
materials in and around Herschel Crater and the greenish cast on older,
more heavily cratered terrain elsewhere. The origin of the color
differences is not yet understood, but may be caused by differences in
the surface composition between the two terrains. False color images
from Cassini's previous closest encounter, in 2005, also showed such
variations. The natural color of Mimas visible to the human eye may be
a uniform gray or yellow color, but this mosaic has been
contrast-enhanced and
shows differences at other wavelengths of light. During this flyby on
Feb. 13, 2010, Cassini came within about 5,900 miles of Mimas and these
images were obtained with Cassini's narrow-angle camera on that day at
a distance of approximately 10,000 miles from Mimas. The images were
re-projected into an orthographic map projection. A black and white
image, taken in visible light with the wide-angle camera, is used to
fill in parts of the mosaic. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science
Institute