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Enceladus from about 208 Km
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The tortured southern polar terrain of Enceladus appears strewn with great boulders of ice in this fantastic view, one of the best HR images obtained so far by Cassini of any world.
Some smearing of the image due to spacecraft motion is apparent in this scene, which was acquired as Enceladus raced past Cassini's field of view near the time of closest approach. At the time, the imaging cameras were pointed close to the moon's limb, rather than directly below the spacecraft. This allowed for less motion blur than would have been apparent had the cameras pointed straight down. Thus, the terrain imaged here was actually at a distance of 208 Km from Cassini.
At this fine scale, the surface is dominated by ice blocks between 10 and 100 mt across. The origin of these icy boulders is enigmatic: scientists are interested in studying the sizes and numbers of the blocks in this bizarre scene and in understanding whether terrain covered with boulders is common on Enceladus.
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