PIA07697: A Closer Look at Telesto (False-Color)


A Closer Look at Telesto (False-Color)

Caption:

These views show surface features and color variation on the Trojan moon Telesto. The smooth surface of this moon suggests that, like Pandora, it is covered with a mantle of fine, dust-sized icy material.

The monochrome image was taken in visible light (see PIA07696 ). To create the false-color view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This "color map" was then superposed over a clear-filter image. The origin of the color differences is not yet understood, but may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil.

Tiny Telesto is a mere 24 kilometers (15 miles) wide.

The image was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 25, 2005 at a distance of approximately 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) from Telesto and at a Sun-Telesto-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 58 degrees. Image scale is 118 meters (387 feet) per pixel.

Background Info:

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

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

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Telesto
System Saturn
Target Type Satellite
Mission Cassini-Huygens
Instrument Host Cassini Orbiter
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS)
Detector Narrow Angle Camera
Extra Keywords Color, Dust, Infrared, Map, Ultraviolet, Visual
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2006-02-08
Date in Caption 2005-12-25
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07697
Identifier PIA07697