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Stripes and heat map side-by-side
Cassini’s 12 March 2008 flyby of Enceladus provided the best view yet of the heat radiation from the active south pole of the satellite. These images summarize what was learned about the south polar landscapes and heat radiation during the previous close flyby on 15 July 2005.
The left panel shows a map of the south pole constructed from images taken by the spacecraft’s imaging system. Four prominent fractures, informally called "tiger stripes," cut diagonally across the south polar region. In the right-hand panel, a July 2005 map of the south polar heat radiation, obtained by Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer, is superimposed in false colour on the visible images. The observations revealed a prominent warm region centered on the south pole, appearing yellow and orange in this view, which coincides with the locations of the tiger stripes. However, these data were taken from too far away from Enceladus (about 80 000 km) to distinguish the fine details of the heat radiation. The July 2005 flyby also included some scattered close-up snapshots by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer; these showed that the heat radiation was concentrated along the tiger stripe fractures, but those snapshots covered only a small fraction of the south polar region.
The white lines enclose the area covered by the much more detailed view of the south pole obtained by the spectrometer during the 12 March 12 2008 flyby. Numbers on the map show latitude and longitude.
