Saturn's Icy Moons

Images of Saturn's moons Rhea and Tethys, showcasing cratered surfaces and geological features in a stark, dark space backdrop.

Tethys in Full View

After nearly three years at Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft continues to observe the planet's retinue of icy moons. Rhea's cratered face attests to its great age, while its bright wisps hint at tectonic activity in the past

Odysseus Crater, with a size of epic proportions, stretches across a large northern expanse on Saturn's moon Tethys in this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

$This view looks toward Rhea's north polar region, where icy fractures slither away toward the south$

Odysseus in the Light

Rhea's crater-saturated surface shows a large bright blotch, which was likely created when a geologically recent impact sprayed bright, fresh ice ejecta over the moon's surface

Mimas plows along in its orbit, its pockmarked surface in crisp relief. The bright, steep walls of the enormous crater, Herschel (130 kilometers, or 80 miles wide), gleam in the sunlight

$The fractured terrain so distinctive to Dione curves away toward the south in this view, which looks down at the moon's northern hemisphere$

Tethys in Full View

Many impact craters -- the record of the collision of cosmic debris -- are shown in this mosaic from NASA's Voyager 1 of Saturn's moon Dione.

Cracked-up Dione

Flyby Follow-up

Youthful Wrinkles

Far off Cracks

Crater Terminator

Appearing like a cyclops gazing off into space, Saturn's moon Mimas and its large Herschel Crater are profiled from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Herschel Crater is 130 kilometers (80 miles) wide and covers most of the left of this image.

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft April 24 to 26, 2015, from a distance of 8,500 miles (13,500 kilometers).

Icy Scars

The oblate moon Mimas displays the cratered surface of its anti-Saturn side in this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Fortunate View

Eye of Tethys

The sun's low angle near the terminator highlights the topography of craters within Rhea's wispy terrain

History on Tethys

Wisps on Dione

Pulverized Pulchritude (Monochrome)

The Cassini spacecraft eyes a prominent crater on the moon Janus.

A large impact basin dominates the high southern latitudes of Saturn's moon Dione.

This image incorporates the best data on dimples and bulges of the protoplanet Vesta from ground-based telescopes and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This model of Vesta uses scientists' best guess to date of what the surface might look like.

Cratered Iceball

Saturn's moon Dione passes by the moon Tethys in this NASA Cassini spacecraft depiction of a 'mutual event' in which one moon passes close to or in front of another moon.

Rhea: Full Moon

Southern Face of Tethys

Bright Penelope

North and South on Tethys

Frame-Filling Rhea

Enceladus shows off its tortured south polar terrain, which is crosscut by the roughly parallel furrows and ridges called sulci, or informally, tiger

Mimas - cratered surface

Wispy terrain reflects sunlight brightly in the lower left of this NASA Cassini image of the northern latitudes of Saturn's moon Dione.

Bennu asteroid

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 16, 2015, from a distance of 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers).

Saturn's Two-Face Moon

Saturn - Enceladus from a Distance of 119,000 kilometers (74,000 miles)

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on April 29, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers).

Enceladus is a world divided. To the north, NASA's Cassini spacecraft see copious amounts of craters and evidence of the many impacts the moon has suffered in its history. However, to the south we see a smoother body with wrinkles due to geologic activity

Moon Wears a Scar

Iapetus Spins and Tilts

Dione Has Her Faults (Monochrome)

Saturn's Moon Dione, From Voyager 1

Eros Image Mosaic, Looking North

NASA's Cassini spacecraft takes one of its last good looks at Iapetus, a Saturnian moon known for its yin-yang-like, bright-and-dark color pattern.

This amazing perspective view captures battered Mimas against the hazy limb of Saturn. It is obvious in such close-up images that Mimas has been badly scarred by impacts over the eons. Its wide crater, Herschel, lies in the darkness at right

Banded Moon

Five moons, dominated by Rhea in the foreground, share NASA's Cassini spacecraft view with Saturn's rings seen nearly edge-on. Also seen here are Dione, Epimetheus, Prometheus, and Tethys.

A darkly defined Rhea passes before the fuzzy orb of Titan in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft of Saturn's two largest moons. Rhea is closer to the spacecraft in this view.

On Approach to Enceladus

Tethys and Rings

Saturn's moon Mimas peeks out from behind the night side of the larger moon Dione in this image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during the Dione flyby of Dec. 12, 2011.

Image of Earth's moon. July 31, 2005

Early View of Dactyl

New Horizons took this image of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io with its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 15:15 Universal Time on February 28, 2007, nearly 10 hours after the spacecraft's closest approach to Jupiter.

The North Polar Region of Enceladus

Rhea shows off her bright, fresh-looking impact crater in this Cassini view taken during a close approach

Aeneas on the Edge

MGS Approach Image - 262.3 W Longitude

Mimas and the Ring of Saturn

This frame from a movie clip shows the larger of Mars' two moons, Phobos, passing in front of the smaller Martian moon, Deimos, as observed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.

Cratered Surface of Tethys

This frame from a video shows the bright spots in Occator crater on dwarf planet Ceres, generated from data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

Saturn's moon Dione floats in the dark sky before NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Images taken from slightly different directions allow construction of stereo views, helpful in interpreting the complex topography of Saturn's moons. 3D glasses are necessary.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks at Belet, a dark region on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The Cassini spacecraft looks at Belet, a dark region on Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 16, 2015, from a distance of 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers).

Herschel: Dead-On

From Dark to Bright and Red to White

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks past the cratered south polar area of Saturn's moon Rhea to spy the moon Dione and the planet's rings in the distance. Dione's 'wispy' terrain can be seen on the trailing hemisphere of that moon.

Encountering Hyperion (Movie)

This enhanced-color mosaic from NASA's Cassini spacecraft of Saturn's icy moon Tethys shows a range of features on the moon's trailing hemisphere.

Tethys in Eclipse

Hyperion's Nose

Saturn's Saucer Moons

Phobos from 6,800 Kilometers

A crescent Tethys shows off its great scar, Ithaca Chasma, for which the moon is renowned. The chasm is 100 kilometers (60 miles) across on average, and is 4 kilometers (2 miles) deep in places.

False Color Image of Saturn's Moon Dione

This image of Kerberos was created by combining four individual LORRI pictures taken on July 14, 2015, approximately seven hours before New Horizons' closest approach to Pluto, at a range of 245,600 miles (396,100 km) from Kerberos.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft views the cratered surface of Saturn's moon Tethys in front of the hazy orb of the planet's largest moon, Titan. Tethys is much closer than Titan to Cassini.

Prominent dark areas found in the Titan's equatorial region appear to contain vast and continuous dune fields, discovered by the Cassini Radar experiment and likely composed of particles that drop from Titan's unique, smoggy atmosphere

Enceladus briefly passes behind the crescent of Rhea in these images, which are part of a mutual

The Cassini spacecraft looks toward Fensal and Aztlan, two dark areas near the equator of Titan.

This image of Pluto was taken by NASA's New Horizons' spacecraft at 4:18 UT on July 9, 2015, from a range of 3.9 million miles (6.3 million kilometers) reveals new details on the surface of Pluto.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft peers down through the hazy atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan to view the dark region called Belet. The large region called Belet has a low albedo, meaning it reflects little light.

Closing in on Phoebe

Rosy Tan Moon

Jupiter's Moons: Family Portrait

$NASA's Cassini Orbiter sees Titan become obscured as it moves into eclipse by Saturn. Most of the light comes from refracted sunlight passing through the edge of Saturn's atmosphere.$

Within the windswept wastes of Titan's equatorial dune desert lies the 1,700-km (1,050-mi) wide bright region called Adiri, seen here at center. The intrepid Huygens probe landed off the northeastern edge of Adiri in January 2005

This 3D image was obtained as Dawn approached Vesta and circled the giant asteroid during the mission's survey orbit phase. You need 3D glasses to view this image.

Hyperion

Ceres' Haulani Crater is shown in these views from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. These views reveal variations in the region's brightness, mineralogy and temperature at infrared wavelengths.

This montage shows the best views of Jupiter's four large and diverse 'Galilean' satellites as seen by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)

Cassini looks toward Tethys and its great crater Odysseus, while at the same time capturing veiled Titan in the distance (at left)

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