CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS

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Tethys the Spy

 

Tethys appears to be peeking out from behind Rhea, watching the watcher.

Tethys appears brighter than Rhea because Tethys has a higher albedo, or reflectivity. Scientists believe that Tethys' surprisingly high albedo is due to the water ice jets emerging from its neighbor, Enceladus. The fresh water ice becomes the E ring and can eventually arrive at Tethys, giving it a fresh surface layer of clean ice.

Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn side of Rhea. North on Rhea is up. The image was taken in red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 20, 2012.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 59 degrees. Image scale is 7 miles (11 kilometers) per pixel.

 

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Tethys the Spy
PIA 18293


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