Dramatic Dione

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Cassini captured this striking view of Saturn’s moon Dione on July 23, 2012. Dione is about 698 miles (1,123 kilometers) across. Its density suggests that about a third of the moon is made up of a dense core (probably silicate rock) with the remainder of its material being water ice. At Dione's average temperature of -304 degrees Fahrenheit (-186 degrees Celsius), ice is so hard it behaves like rock.

The image was taken with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 260,000 miles (418,000 kilometers) from Dione, through a polarized filter and a spectral filter sensitive to green light.

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Source / Image Courtesy

 

Cassini Maps Saturn's Moon Dione 2004-2014. Digital map of Dione in 3 colors (IR, Green, UV) at a resolution of 250 meters. Digital cartography and mosaic by Dr. Paul M. Schenk with visualization by John Blackwell. Image data are from the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) on the Cassini orbiter (NASA, JPL).

 

New gravity data from recent Cassini flybys of the giant planet suggest that Dione's crust floats on an ocean 62 miles below the surface, and may harbor microbial life.

 

The Cassini Spacecraft swooped in for the last of five close encounters with one of the most beautiful moons in our solar system: Dione. After more than a decade exploring the Saturn system, the Cassini-Huygens mission must be regarded as one of the most successful science missions ever.

It has already amassed one of the greatest photographic collections of all time. Revel in the details of Dione out near the limits of the solar system.