Explanation: What's happening on the surface of Saturn's moon Helene? The moon was imaged in unprecedented detail last week as the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn swooped to within two Earth diameters of the diminutive moon. Although conventional craters and hills appear, the above raw and unprocessed image also shows terrain that appears unusually smooth and streaked. Planetary astronomers will be inspecting these detailed images of Helene to glean clues about the origin and evolution of the 30-km across floating iceberg. Helene is also unusual because it circles Saturn just ahead of the large moon Dione, making it one of only four known moons to occupy a gravitational well known as a stable Lagrange point.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: Saturn - sputniki Saturna - KA Kassini Publikacii so slovami: Saturn - sputniki Saturna - KA Kassini
Sm. takzhe: Polyarnoe siyanie vokrug severnogo polyusa Saturna Saturn noch'yu Luna zatmevaet Saturn Cveta Saturna ot "Kassini" Stereo-Elena Polumesyac Encelada Vremena goda na Saturne Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>