Skip Navigation

Resources

Surface Chemistry Maps

Color enhanced mineral maps
Photojournal: PIA19242
Source: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Published: March 13, 2015

These maps, together with maps of other elemental abundances, reveal the presence of distinct geochemical terranes.

ENLARGE

Related

Several sets of shadows are cast onto the A ring in this image taken about a week after Saturn's August 2009 equinox. Near the middle of the image, shadows are cast by vertically extended clumps i...
More
Several sets of shadows are cast onto Saturn's A ring
Shadows and More Shadows
The Cassini spacecraft has a peek beneath the hazes in Saturn's upper atmosphere at the swirling vortices that lurk below. Many vortices can be seen in this image, varying in size from small to la...
More
Saturn's upper atmosphere
The Storms Within
These polar maps show the first global, topographic mapping of Saturn's moon Titan, using data from NASA's Cassini mission. To create these maps, scientists employed a mathematical process called s...
More
Polar maps of Titan
Polar Views of Titan's Global Topography
Saturn's small, irregularly shaped moon Helene is strikingly illuminated in this close view captured by Cassini during the spacecraft's June 18, 2011, flyby. Although it is not visible at this exp...
More
Helene
Dramatic Helene
The Earth as seen from the Moon.
More
The Earth as seen from the Moon.
The Earth from the Moon
This dramatic close-up of Tethys shows the large crater Penelope lying near center, overprinted by many smaller, younger impact sites. Three smaller impact features of roughly similar size make ...
More
A close-up of Tethys showing the large crater Penelope
Penelope Crater
Our robotic explorer Cassini regards the shadow-draped face of Saturn. This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 14 degrees above the ringplane. In this viewing geometr...
More
The shadow-draped face of Saturn.
Grace and Beauty
A short but fierce "gullywasher" rainstorm of methane falls on the mountains surrounding the intriguing flows of Titan's Hotei Arcus in this artist's concept by Michael Carroll, based upon radar ma...
More
Titan's Hotei Arcus, artist's concept
Rainy Day at Hotei Arcus
Infrared South Pole August 19, 2004 Full-Res: PIA05438 This Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera view of Saturn's southern polar re...
More
Infrared South Pole
Infrared South Pole
This artistic interpretation of the Sikun Labyrinthus area on Saturn's moon Titan is based on radar and imaging data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft and the descent imaging and spectral radiometer o...
More
An artistic interpretation of the Sikun Labyrinthus area on Titan
Sikun Labyrinthus, an Artistic View
This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a fresh impact crater with an asymmetric rim. The crater displays a sharp rim over much of its perimeter that is interrupted by a smooth area in the north.
More
Dawn LAMO Image 31
Dawn LAMO Image 31
+ Annotated version + Dunes, Tectonics and Possible Ice Volcanoes on Titan (related image) The bright landmass of an enigmatic area known as Xanadu and the intriguing lobed shapes of the H...
More
Titan
Dunes, Tectonics and Possible Ice Volcanoes on Titan
Titan and Saturn have very few things in common, but a hazy appearance is one feature they share. Although their faces seem similar in images like this, appearances can be misleading.
More
Image of Titan in front of Saturn
Veiled Worlds
The spoke-forming region in the outer part of Saturn's B ring is often seen to exhibit the irregular, patchy appearance around the ring that is visible in this Cassini view.
More
Saturn's B ring
B Ring Irregularities
Wrinkled and cracked Enceladus hangs in the distance as the pitted ring moon Janus, at right, rounds the outer edge of the F ring. Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) is remarkable for...
More
Enceladus, Janus, at right, and the outer edge of the F ring
Moons of Interest
The Cassini spacecraft looks toward an area between the trailing hemisphere and anti-Saturn side of Tethys and spies the large crater Melanthius near the moon's south pole. Melanthius, at the bott...
More
The large crater Melanthius near Tethys's south pole.
Melanthius on Tethys
This mosaic of three frames from the Huygens DISR instrument provides unprecedented detail of the high ridge area including the flow down into a major river channel from different sources.
More
Black and white image showing drainage channels from above.
Mosaic of River Channel and Ridge Area on Titan
NASA's Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn was awarded the 2012 National Air and Space Museum Trophy for Current Achievement on March 21 at a black-tie dinner in Washington, D.C. Pictured (from left ...
More
Wayne Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian; Robert Mitchell, Cassini program manager based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; and Gen. Jack Dailey, director of the National Air and Space Museum.
National Air and Space Museum Award for Cassini-Huygens
Sintana Crater is seen on the left side of this image of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacercraft. The crater's central peak casts a shadow over its western flank. At lower right, the rim of Darzamat pee...
More
Dawn XMO2 Image 14
Dawn XMO2 Image 14
From the Dark Side December 10, 2004 Full-Res: PIA06529 As Cassini swung around to the dark side of the planet during its first close ...
More
From the Dark Side
From the Dark Side
The Cassini spacecraft awaits placement of its payload fairing at Launch Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Station (CCAS) to protect Cassini during launch. 
More
Close up of spacecraft in launch facility.
Weeks Before Launch
The Huygens probe descends through Titan's murky, brownish-orange atmosphere of nitrogen and carbon-based molecules, beaming its findings to the distant Cassini orbiter. The probe is equipped with...
More
Probe over Titan
Probe over Titan
Saturn's narrow F ring displays two bright strands, flanked by fainter material. The continuing evolution of this quirky ring is an ongoing subject of study for Cassini scientists. This view looks...
More
A view of Saturn's rings
F Ring Evolution
The rings of Saturn glow softly as sunlight from below wends its way through. Some of the Sun's light bounces off the rings' opposite side and can be seen illuminating Saturn's night side southern ...
More
Saturn and its stunning rings
Suncatcher
Weak sunlight illuminates Saturn's large, icy moon Tethys and its giant crater Odysseus. At the orbit of Saturn the Sun's light is between 80 and 100 times fainter than at Earth, depending on whe...
More
Tethys
Cold Sunshine

You Might Also Like