Moon Methone Meets Cassini

MistrX writes with a tidbit about what the Cassini probe is up to nowadays. From the article: "NASA's Cassini spacecraft made its closest approach to Saturn's tiny moon Methone as part of a trajectory that will take it on a close flyby of another of Saturn's moons, Titan. The Titan flyby will put the spacecraft in an orbit around Saturn that is inclined, or tilted, relative to the plane of the planet's equator. The flyby of Methone took place on May 20 at a distance of about 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers). It was Cassini's closest flyby of the 2-mile-wide (3-kilometer-wide) moon. The best previous Cassini images were taken on June 8, 2005, at a distance of about 140,000 miles (225,000 kilometers), and they barely resolved this object."

Comments

Raw imagery

[bonch]

There's a bunch of raw imagery up from Cassini at the CICLOPS imaging lab site here.

Re:Raw imagery

[ciderbrew]

That's more like it. The main one in TFA seemed like a waste of time!

Re:Raw imagery

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

There's a bunch of raw imagery up from Cassini at the CICLOPS imaging lab site here.

A lot of the Cassini imagery was used for the animated, 3D IMAX movie Quantum Quest which, incidentally, stars both Captains Kirk, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. It is a kids movie, so don't expect too much.

Re:Raw imagery

[saveferrousoxide]

and their surfaces are sprayed by ice particles originating from the jets of water ice, water vapor and organic compounds emanating from the south polar area of the moon Enceladus

That just seems wrong for one moon to piss on another just because it's bigger.

Why is it so smooth?

[GodfatherofSoul]

How can such a small object with a weak gravitational field, have such a smooth surface?

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[lxs]

It's called Meth One. It's obviously populated by tweakers with OCD scrubbing that little rock as smooth as can be.

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[Anonymous Coward]

Even Edward James Olmos looks smooth from 1200 miles.

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[shadowrat]

That's no moon.

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[sinistermidget]

From TFA:

The three tiny moons, called the Alkyonides group, are embedded in Saturn's E ring, and their surfaces are sprayed by ice particles originating from the jets of water ice, water vapor and organic compounds emanating from the south polar area of Enceladus.

So basically it's a spray on coating of organic material, AKA planetary porn.

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[Jeng]

Is the resolution high enough to tell if it is actually smooth?

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just from the Wiki article, it's hard to tell. But if this is an icy moon it would make sense that all the gravitational harassment of the various other bodies would probably be enough to make it spherical. But, again, I really don't know.

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[BlackPignouf]

Good question.
That's the smoothest-looking pixel I've ever seen!

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[Anonymous Coward]

Left long enough uninterrupted by external forces, every object will form a smooth surface.

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am sorry I meant cluster of objects clumped together, not single object.

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a guess: it apparently orbits in the E-ring, which is related to the jets of ice from Enceladus. Maybe these tiny ring particles are somewhat sticky and have been accumulating on the surface for a long time, thus covering craters from larger objects? I seem to recall some of the small moons within Saturn's rings also having anomalously smooth surfaces. Ah, here we go: Atlas and Pan. These two are not completely smoothed all over, but have accreted material along the plane where they sit in the ring. For Methone, the E-ring is quite broad, so perhaps the same effect smooths the whole thing?

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[mikael]

Maybe jets of ionised particles from the planet or other moons sandblast (or should that be ionblast it smooth). Just like those aerodynamic rock sculptures in the desert areas.

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[bcrowell]

The other thing I wondered about from the picture was whether the elongated shape was a random thing like the shapes of some asteroids, or whether it was made out of some substance that was plastic enough to deform under the influence of Saturn's tidal forces. I guess it's not that far out from the Roche limit...?

Re:Why is it so smooth?

[mug funky]

no, that's the free market model :)

Wet towel

[Overzeetop]

It looks like somebody dragged a wet towel across the surface of the moon.

I parsed that as 'Methane' at first

[TheGoodNamesWereGone]

Or maybe it was my dinner last night

Re:I parsed that as 'Methane' at first

[ArhcAngel]

Funny, I first gleaned "Moon Methadone Meets Casino" and wondered what Zappa did.

The Death Star

[na1led]

It's about the same size as the Star Wars Death Star, maybe Darth Vader is hiding in there.

amazing.

[P-niiice]

2 km wide, and still pockmarked with craters. Accretion was a bitch.

It looks like...

[neoshroom]

For some reason every time I look at that photo of the moon, I see this.

I Wonder

[sir lox elroy]

how many aliens will be caught that can be found in the pictures. Must start looking..... JK :-)

what a pay-off

[eyenot]

As nail-biting (for myself, anyways) as the Cassini launch was, this probe has already more than paid off for its costs and everything else associated with it. I thought it was just going to be some pictures of Saturn.

Other object in the image?

[Caerdwyn]

There seem to be elongated star-trails and out-of-focus objects in the raw image. I've highlighted a few. What's interesting is that the star-trails aren't all in the same direction, or necessarily a spacecraft rotation artifact. Are these smaller objects in orbit around Methone, or the result of the image being a composite, perhaps?