Grand Canyon on Tethys

A crescent Tethys shows off its Grand Canyon, Ithaca Chasma, for which the moon is renowned. The chasm is about 100 Km (app.x 60 miles) across on average, and its up to 4 Km (about 2 miles) deep in places.

Ithaca Chasma is the most prominent sign of ancient geologic activity on Tethys, whose surface is characterized principally by heavy cratering.

The lit surface visible here is on the moon's Saturn-facing Hemisphere. North on Tethys is straight up.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 28, 2005 using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nnmts. The view was acquired from a distance of app.x 1,1 MKM (equivalento to about 700.000 miles) from Tethys and at a phase angle of 123°. Resolution in the original image was 6 Km (about 4 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.