Tiger Stripes are Cubs

This visual and infrared mapping spectrometer image of Saturn's moon Enceladus (in the 2 micron-wavelength) shows the dark cracks at the south pole dubbed "tiger stripes" for their distinct stripe-like appearance.

Superimposed on top of the map is a "crystallinity" map that shows the freshest, most crystal ice as blue. The crystalline ice is most prominent in the tiger stripes region.

This image was taken during Cassini's close flyby of Enceladus on July 14, 2005.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team homepage is at http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona