Enceladus and Tethys
Mar. 5th, 2005 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvinOn this orbit of Cassini, the sweep through the inner Saturn system is on Wednesday, and will be fairly eventful: first, an even closer flyby of Enceladus than the one a few weeks ago (500 km distance, the closest Cassini flyby of any moon so far; it will beat this record with a 100 km Enceladus flyby in 2008, and it looks as if it will be worth it).
Then, Cassini gets the best look yet at Tethys, about 83,000 km off, which should be good enough for some spectacular multi-image mosaics. These won't catch the giant crater Odysseus (though Cassini got some more far-off pictures of that over the past few days); it looks as if there will be good pictures of the trailing hemisphere and really good ones of Ithaca Chasma, a giant canyon system stretching halfway across Tethys.
Then, Cassini gets the best look yet at Tethys, about 83,000 km off, which should be good enough for some spectacular multi-image mosaics. These won't catch the giant crater Odysseus (though Cassini got some more far-off pictures of that over the past few days); it looks as if there will be good pictures of the trailing hemisphere and really good ones of Ithaca Chasma, a giant canyon system stretching halfway across Tethys.