Ancient Craters of Southern Rhea
Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA
Posted on 05/13/2008 2:05:27 PM PDT by sig226
Explanation: Saturn's ragged moon Rhea has one of the oldest surfaces known. Estimated as changing little in the past billion years, Rhea shows craters so old they no longer appear round – their edges have become compromised by more recent cratering. Like Earth's Moon, Rhea's rotation is locked on Saturn, and the above image shows part of Rhea's surface that always faces Saturn. Rhea's leading surface is more highly cratered than its trailing surface. Rhea is composed mostly of water-ice but is thought to include about 25 percent rock and metal. The above image was taken by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn. Cassini swooped past Rhea last month and captured the above image from about 350,000 kilometers away. Rhea spans 1,500 kilometers making it Saturn's second largest moon after Titan. Several surface features on Rhea remain unexplained including large light patches like those seen near the image top.
Move this object to Mars or the moon. Moon would be better.
I think I see canals.
Cheers! It could be Norm!
Any oil there? The Dems would let us drill THERE, I’m sure....no matter the cost.
Are you kidding?? There might be a single cell or a plant molecule in the atmosphere - they won't let you drill there. Face it, they won't let you drill ANYwhere.
There do seem to be uniform line effects, coming from the top of the photo and sweeping downward across the moon. Many of them. What are those, in geologic terms?
I thought water was rare to non-existent elsewhere.
I see what look like ridgelines, but I have no idea how they might be formed.
Water on Mars is rare. If found, it would suggest that the planet might have been able to support life, at least in cellular form, when it had an atmosphere. Mars’ atmosphere is long gone due to its low gravity.
nice ‘nic.
Thanks for the info.
Great tagline. :-)
And look how many ridge lines there are, north to south as we see the photo, and I can even discern some crossing craters. They don’t look like photographic anomolies, but seem to be on the moon itself. Interesting.
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