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PIA01372: Saturn's Satellite Rhea
 Target Name:  Rhea
 Is a satellite of:  Saturn
 Mission:  Voyager
 Spacecraft:  Voyager 1
 Instrument:  VG ISS - Narrow Angle
 Product Size:  200 x 200 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Producer ID:  P23085
 Addition Date:  1998-11-13
 Primary Data Set:  Voyager EDRs
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA01372.tif (7.389 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA01372.jpg (2.151 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Bright streaks and blotches are visible against a darker back-ground on the surface of Saturn's satellite Rhea, seen in this Voyager 1 image taken Nov. 11, 1980 from a range of 1,925,000 kilometers (1,196,000 miles). Even the dark areas, thought to be water frost and ice, are fairly bright with about 50 percent reflectance. The bright streaks may be related to impacts by objects that throw out pulverized ice grains from beneath the ice-covered surface. Some of the bright streaks are not straight but have a curved appearance similar to the grooved, icy terrain on Jupiter's satellite Ganymede seen in Voyager photographs taken at this resolution. Scientists do knot yet know if a satellite of Rhea's size (approximately 1,500 kilometers or 900 miles in diameter) can have an active thermal history like Ganymede's, but higher resolution photographs taken by Voyager should reveal clues to its history. The Voyager Project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
1998-11-13