HR: 09:00h
AN: P21F-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: An Overview of Saturn's Icy Satellites as Revealed by Cassini
AU: * Buratti, B J
EM: bonnie.buratti@jpl.nasa.g0v
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory Calif. Inst. of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr. Mail code 183-501, Pasadena, CA 91109
AB: By the end of 2005, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will have executed 9 close flybys of the icy satellites of Saturn. Phoebe, Iapetus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, and Hyperion have been closely scrutinized by a targeted or close serendipitous encounter, while Enceladus has been visited three times at distances of 1200 km or less. A close flyby of Enceladus in mid-July 2005, during which the spacecraft swooped to within 169 km of the surface, revealed a hot, active south pole. At the other extreme is Phoebe, a pristine, heavily cratered body that may have migrated in towards Saturn from the Kuiper Belt when the Solar System was young. The leading surface of Iapetus appears to be coated with a thin layer of very low albedo dust rich in organics, and an equatorial ridge unlike any seen before extends at least halfway around the body. Besides water ice, carbon dioxide has been found in the satellite system, and various organic materials exist in trace amounts. Dione, Rhea, and Tethys bear evidence for earlier episodes of tectonic activity and possibly melting. All the satellites exhibit a chronological record of the cratering history of the Saturnian system. Work funded by NASA.
DE: 6280 Saturnian satellites
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005