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.

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.