4 days to go - ISS is prime once again through the closest approach with some images of the tiger-stripe region expected at 8m/pixel.
Initial flyby description and timeline available here (4.3Mb)
I've found the mission blogging very detailed on the last two flybys - I presume they'll be doing this again.
Can't wait!!

Enceladus mission description 088EN + 091EN
This document describes the flyby scheduled for Oct. 09, 2008 and for Oct. 31, 2008 too.

It occurs to me that with multiple mosaics being done of the Tiger Stripes region that there is a possibility of stereo imaging.

Admittedly the high resolution shots cover a fairly small area, so there might not be a lot of overlap in those, but the larger images are bound to have a lot of overlap.

Has this been mentioned anywhere? I don't recall seeing it in any of the mission documents.

Pretty cool "warm up" pic...

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...fm?imageID=3283

It was also today's photojournal pic.

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10500

According to the image description:






Yeah, well I suppose they needed to say that for their management. But why don't they just admit that the REAL reason they do it is because it looks really cool?

Enceladus Rev 91 Flyby: Oct 31 '08

Yes, for optimum photometric work wouldn't we want to see ALL of both satellites

The Enceladus (E6) flyby blog is now up-and-running over at the Cassini-Huygens website for those interested.
Particularly good is the flyby visualisation put together by Brent Buffington, and showcased by Amanda Hendrix.
The CIRS results should be very interesting, and I for one can't wait for that handful of images of the vent regions at resolutions between 10m and 30m/pixel.

First images from a distance of about 95000 km.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...ages-list1.html
We must wait patiently for the next.

First "skeet shot" image (512 x 512) is here:
http://ciclops.org/view_event/96
Looks good.

Carolyn Porco
Cassini Imaging Team Leader
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/enceladus/posts/index.html

Images from yesterday's flyby processed:

http://ciclops.org/view_event/97/Cassini_Skeet_Shoots_Again

Hope you like the mosaic!

CICLOPS site updated !
skeet shoot 1-4 mosaic
skeet shoot #1
skeet shoot #8
skeet shoot #9

Amazing, this shooting technique works incredibly well. The highest resolution image from the set is crystal clear. Could even higer resolution images be obtained in the future?

Not likely. Won't visit for another year and the sun angle will no longer light up the south pole--See Carolyn Porco's Blog. View should get good again starting in 2025.
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/enceladus/posts/index.html

VP Thanks for the great mosaic!!! Get some sleep now.

Interesting that jet VII is the only one not issuing from the heart of a sulcus itself. What might that say about the processes at work here, if anything?

P

Beautiful work, Jason; thanks very much!

I'm still amazed at how rough this terrain is at this scale.

It could simply be that the predicted source location of VII was a bit off the mark. Projecting the jet sources back to the surface is no simple task!

Great mission and work Carolyn and Jason--but now that you have had two days of exclusive play--how about releasing the raw images for others to play with.

Don't thank me so much as Paul Helfenstein, who did a great job once again targeting these images even as we were flying by so quickly. Some of the images were even off a bit from where he targeted, and they were even better.

Way to go, Paul! Awesomeness.

All pictures from Enceladus flyby are already available.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...ages-list1.html

A quick mosaic from the encounter to help you position the hi-res pics. Enjoy !
Click to view attachment

Thanks for the mosaic, Vikingmars, that's helpful.

I've been spending the morning trying to figure out where all the skeet shoot footprints fell, because they didn't quite match the preview map. Here's what I came up with. Yellow footprints are rev 91 (Oct 31); green footprints are rev 80 (August). Red dots are the plume sources. Numbers refer to the image source -- PIA images have been released on Photojournal, the N00 and W00 numbers are available as raws. There's the makings of a pretty fine high-res mosaic covering parts of Baghdad, Cairo, and Alexandria sulci, but I don't think I have the patience to attempt to assemble it.

--Emily

EDIT: Deleted attachment due to error in labels; see post below for corrected map.

Emily, for the sake of completeness, could the locations of PIA06252 and PIA06251 be added to your composite?

They could, if I had a clue where they fell. The WAC image in that pair (PIA06251) has a resolution of 37 meters per pixel, so its footprint should be similar in size to Skeet Shoot #9 from Rev 91. However, it was from much earlier in the season, when much more of the south pole was sunlit -- it's totally possible that it could fall in a dark area. Does anybody have any better information on where that fell? It should be in the metadata on the PDS but I don't have time at the moment to track it down.

--Emily

The dark blue outlines represent the location of the Rev11 hires shots. The outer dark blue outline is PIA06251 and the inner dark blue outline is PIA06252. BTW, Emily, the sulci labels are not quite right. The fracture labeled "Damascus" is unnamed, "Baghdad" is Damascus, "Cairo" is Baghdad, "Alexandria" is Cairo, and Alexandria is in the shot.

The actual Rev91 Skeet Shoot footprints are now posted on the CICLOPS site:

http://ciclops.org/view/5335/Enceladus_Rev_91_Flyby

And I echo volcanopele's congratulations to Paul Helfenstein for "pulling" off another spectacular Skeet Shoot!

Thanks very much for that, Jason, and woops on the sulci labels -- I'll fix in an hour or two, have to go interview someone for Phoenix now. --Emily

Thanks again to Jason for pointing me to the location of that Rev 11 high-res shot -- I'd never have figured it out without help. The different lighting geometry made it especially difficult to match features. Still, I think things match up pretty well, except in the lower right corner of the image (on the map below -- you have to rotate PIA06251 180 degrees to get it in approximately the right orientation), which doesn't match at all. Weird.

--Emily

Click to view attachment

Another quick mosaic from the encounter to help you position the hi-res pics in their sulci global geological context. Enjoy !
Click to view attachment

And another quick map update where I better like the rendition between Mosul and Cashmere sulci...

Click to view attachment

Full res version at http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/sos/sos.html#ENCELADUS

Steve

Those pictures are awesome ... fine tracery on the ice. What an interesting moon.

Howdies, everyone!

Back again from the grave once more with a composite of the high-resolution imagery from both Revs eighty and ninety-one. The backdrop is a greyscale version of VP's orthographic mosaic from the August encounter.His mosaic of the four sharpest frames from the Halloween pass is incorporated as well for additional accuracy. I've excluded the two frames centered on the unnamed canyon to the north of Damascus Sulcus, and included the WAC frame from August that's misssing in Emily's map. Much thanks to both Emily and Jason for making this easy. Enjoy!

PS: These have to be some of the best images in the history of planetary exploration...repeat kudos to the ISS team for another miracle.

Click to view attachment

I'd like to include (a) crop at full resolution for wallpapers and such. Even at reduced scale, the the boulder-y surface texture over this area comes out well with such broad coverage. Tops:

Click to view attachment

Bottoms:

Ruh Roh. Not anymore.

Odds and ends...this is ridiculously inaccurate, but I'm sure the more talented among us can do something better (hint hint Don Davis )

Click to view attachment


Just for laughs, here's a real oblique view of the northern cratered terrain that seems to have been lost from the first close pass back in February '05.

Magnificent stuff as ever!
Too long between your posts EC - missed your work.
I agree regarding your comment that the Enceladus images are "some of the best images in the history of planetary exploration"
The skeet-shoot process reminds me of the fabulously innovative way in which Voyager 2 carried out its close encounter with Miranda in order to compensate for a dicky scan platform, high encounter speed and low light-levels.

Any news as yet as to what Cassini sniffed in the plumes!?how come its taking so long ?

I don't expect to hear anything until December 15, at the Enceladus sessions at the AGU meeting.

--Emily

The images in my earlier posts have been modified, because they were terrible. The evil trolls of UMSF were using them to promote ideas contrary to the valid goals and purposes of this forum ( IE, accuracy), so I corrected them hastily. The Enceladalosians are pleased with the results, so we invite you once again to view the fantastic and fanciful images of The Cassini free from the vile influence of Strong Drink and Pilates. Enjoy. Responsibly.

Thanks EC--great work.

Nice article in the December Scientific American: The restless World of Enceladus by Carolyne Porco.
The article has some nice images (as you would expect) and discussion about sources of heat.
Carolyne also speaks of the possibility of life:

"Enceladus not only has enough heat to drive surface-altering geological activity but also is endowed with organic compounds and possibly underground channels or even seas of liquid water. Energy, organics, liquid water: these are the three requisites for life as we know it. In our exploration of this alien and faraway place, we have come face to face with an environment potentially suitable for living organisms. It does not get much better than this."

There is even a picture of Doug (in yellow) and EC (in red) in space suits hiking up to jets.

Enceladus article online. There goes Sunday

EDIT: there's a great 6 minute video, too. Strangely reminiscent of the 1970s Open University programmes, too, both in the production values (the audio.... the music!) and the quality of the content (excellent.)

Excellent, many thanks for the heads-up! Saves me a trip to the library to read their copy.

Enceladus CHARM today:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/products/CHARM.cfm

just watched the video and was surprised to see my name at the end!
i had completely forgotten i had sent them elevation data for the flyover movie.
they did a really nice job with it. very impressive production.
wish ic ould download the movie. anyone know how?
paul

It's a Flash video, and judging from the source they're trying to make it as hard as possible to save locally. However! A search for "local save Flash video" turns up lots of software to do the job. If you're using Firefox, there are several extensions / "AddOns" to do this too, e.g. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5229 . (I've not tried this one myself, though, so can't vouch for it.. or any of the others. ) Good luck - and thanks, and congratulations

Here's an updated version of my Enceladus map. Further adjustments based on the October and other imagery have been made, particularly from Cashmere northward to Cufa. There's also a skeet-shoot image of Baghdad Sulcus thrown in for good measure. The color is muted to be a bit more realistic. I hope to get the full resolution posted on my web site this coming week.

Click to view attachment

That's the latest,

Steve

Greetings. I figured out how to do a polar projection in the GIMP, so here is a south polar view of Enceladus. This is somewhat reduced in resolution to fit in the attachment.

Click to view attachment

Steve

This is about other October 2008 flyby, but I don't see a separate topic for it. I was wondering when we were going to get the results from this deep penetration into the plumes. Looks like they are here.

New Scientist is reporting that Na in the form of NaCl and bicarbonate were found. This is best evidence yet for a liquid sea. The results are to be released at the European Geophysical Union.

Link to New Scientist announcement