CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
Enceladus Behind Tethys

The moon Enceladus passes behind the larger moon Tethys, as seen in this pair of Cassini images.

The image on the left was taken a little more than a minute before the image on the right. These images are part of a "mutual event" sequence in which one moon passes close to or in front of another. Such observations help scientists refine their understanding of the orbits of Saturn's moons.

The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 11, 2009. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Enceladus (504 kilometers, 313 miles across) and 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Tethys (1062 kilometers, 660 miles across).

Scales on Tethys and Enceladus in the original images were 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel and 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel, respectively. The images were contrast enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to enhance the visibility of surface features.

The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Released: January 4, 2010 (PIA 12523)
Image/Caption Information 		  Enceladus Behind Tethys
PIA 12523
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