Exploitcorporations
Feb 16 2009, 01:12 AM
I've finally gotten around to piecing together the five mosaics from the 2 February pass. The fractured terrain is seen in excellent detail, and under better lighting conditions than the August 2006 encounter. It also looks like some new polar territory is covered in the first couple of mosaics.
Click to view attachment
Exploitcorporations
Feb 16 2009, 01:15 AM
Here's the closest view at full resolution, taken at about 98,000-100,000km:
Click to view attachment
tedstryk
Feb 16 2009, 08:15 PM
Wow! It is rare to get a series of mosaics like that in which all of them are of such high quality.
Exploitcorporations
Feb 17 2009, 10:26 AM
Yeah, I'm always impressed with the precision with which these observations are carried out, especially with Enceladus. I think that the fact that Rhea is a relatively slow-moving target helps. Four of the five observations here are six-footprint mosaics, and none of them have the gaps apparent in flybys of Tethys or Dione for example.
On a side note, the similarities between Titania/Ariel and Rhea/Dione in comparison seem especially prominent with these images. Also, the linear feature in the south visible in the last view appears to be a scarp based on this and other images. What say the experts here?
Mariner9
Feb 19 2009, 04:14 PM
Wow. Thank you, thank you, thank you for these mosaics.
My math puts the general resolution of the largest one at 625 meters per pixel, making this by far the clearest global view of Rhea that I'm aware of.
The various views of the ridges are spectacular. I could stare at them for hours.
Those of us old enough to remember the Voyager missions also remember a time when the outer solar system moons were expected to be crater scarred spheroids with no appreciable geologic history.
Given the tectonism on view here, it really says something about the outer solar system that Rhea has sometimes been reffered to as the most boring major moon.
belleraphon1
Feb 20 2009, 01:07 AM
As always, Exploitcorporations, you do awesome work.
Been exploring these images while listening to "Symphonies of the Planets". A set of 5 CD's that are recordings from the Voyager space craft radio instruments.... with the readings brought down to audio frequencies... believe me, delving into
space craft images while listening to these CD's brings a whole new dimension to the experience.
There is no such thing as a boring world(let).
Craig
dvandorn
Feb 20 2009, 03:26 AM
I agree, EC, very good work. And the interesting linearities of the terrain show up quite well. I'm almost tempted to say that, at a certain scale, Rhea looks grooved.
-the other Doug
ngunn
Feb 23 2009, 02:32 PM
stevesliva
Feb 23 2009, 04:26 PM
Awesome presentation-- lays out the fields case for an equatorial disk/rings, and mentions the mysterious equatorial patches...
scalbers
Feb 28 2009, 03:04 PM
QUOTE (Exploitcorporations @ Feb 16 2009, 01:12 AM)
I've finally gotten around to piecing together the five mosaics from the 2 February pass. The fractured terrain is seen in excellent detail, and under better lighting conditions than the August 2006 encounter. It also looks like some new polar territory is covered in the first couple of mosaics.
Good call EC on the new territory, or should we say rheaitory? Here's an example of the added coverage with N128853 inserted (click for the animated GIF):
Click to view attachmentSteve
Nice recognition of UMSF in a Tweet from Cassini on Feb 24th......
"Presenter Geraint Jones called out (and showed) Unmanned Spaceflight.com's imaging work at Rhea during todays CHARM telecon! WTG, UMSF"
scalbers
Apr 11 2009, 02:09 PM
Here is an updated map with several images from Rev 102 added. The navigation of various images in the region has been improved as well. The updates cover the northern latitudes of the Saturn facing hemisphere.
Click to view attachmentFull resolution version is at
http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/sos/sos.html#RHEAThe Rev 102 images are all from the second mosaic in EC's initial post. I'm considering whether to add some further images from the highest resolution (fourth) mosaic.
Steve
scalbers
May 2 2009, 08:45 PM
...and here's what it looks like (70% full size) with several images from the highest resolution mosaic added:
Click to view attachmentFull resolution again at
http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/sos/sos.html#RHEA.
Perhaps some experiments to try would be sharpening some input images, and to try an 8K output map.
That's the latest,
Steve
scalbers
May 22 2009, 05:29 PM
Exploit's mosaics are an excellent guide for how to combine the images. Imagery from the fifth mosaic has now been added with some good contributions down south.
Click to view attachmentFull res mosaic map (now 8K) at:
http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/sos/sos.html#RHEA
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