Sep. 26th, 2005

Tethys

Sep. 26th, 2005 07:05 pm
mmcirvin: (Default)
Many raw images are back of Tethys, a heavily cratered and weirdly speckled-looking place. It actually looks more rugged and pitted than the Moon; it's a smaller moon with less gravity, but also icy. Ice is as hard as rock at these temperatures, but it's still a relatively light substance, so as long as nothing happens to melt it, I suppose it stands to reason that you'd get spectacular topography.

This picture looking back at the crescent of Tethys against the line of Saturn's edge-on rings is mysterious; I assume the wavy curtain of light is some sort of internal reflection in the optics, but I haven't seen one like that before. Notice that the night side of Tethys is actually darker than what is behind it. It's possible that this picture was taken against the night side of Saturn (faintly lit up by ring-light) and the reflection is from the brilliant light of Saturn's crescent.

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