New Maps of Saturn’s Moon Dione

This global map of Saturn’s moon Dione was created using images taken during flybys by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. An extensive system of bright ice cliffs created by tectonic fractures adorns the moon’s trailing hemisphere, which is centered on 270 degrees west.

The map is a simple cylindrical (equidistant) projection and has a scale of 502 feet (153 meters) per pixel at the equator. The resolution of the map is 64 pixels per degree. The mean radius of Dione used for projection of this map is 350 miles (563 kilometers).

This map is an update to the version released in October 2010 . This new map contains data from Cassini’s Dec. 12, 2011, flyby of Dione. Improved coverage is in the area around 45 degrees north latitude, 210 degrees west longitude.

Like other recent Dione global maps, this map has been shifted west by 0.6 degrees of longitude, compared to the 2006 version of the map (Map of Dione – December 2006), in order to conform to the International Astronomical Union longitude system convention for Dione.

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 in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov or http://www.nasa.gov/cassini . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Full-Res: PIA14914

The northern and southern hemispheres of Dione are seen in these polar stereographic maps, mosaicked from the best-available clear-filter images from NASA’s Cassini mission.

Each map is centered on one of the poles and surface coverage extends to the equator. Grid lines show latitude and longitude in 30-degree increments. The scale in the full-size versions of these maps is 502 feet (153 meters) per pixel. The resolution of the map is 64 pixels per degree. The mean radius of Dione used for projection of these maps is 350 miles (563 kilometers).

The northern maps are updates to the versions released in October 2010 (see PIA12815). There were no new data for the southern hemisphere, so the October 2010 versions of the southern maps (PIA12816) are unchanged.

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 in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov or http://www.nasa.gov/cassini . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Full-Res: PIA14915