A closer view of Phoebe

As Cassini-Huygens sails toward its rendezvous with Phoebe, details on the small, dark moon are coming into view at a dizzying pace. The images shown here were taken 13 hours apart on 10 June 2004, just one day prior to closest approach. There is a dramatic increase in detail between these two views.

Phoebe completes one rotation about its spin axis in nine hours and 16 minutes. We are looking at opposite hemispheres in these two views.

A large crater, roughly 50 kilometres across, is visible in the image on the left. The image on the right shows a body heavily pitted with craters of varying sizes, including very large ones, and displaying a substantial amount of variation in surface brightness. Features that appear to be cliffs may be the boundaries between large craters. Despite its exaggerated topography, Phoebe is more round than irregular in shape.

Left to right, the two views were obtained from distances of 956 000 kilometres and 658 000 kilometres respectively. The image resolutions are 5.7 and 3.9 kilometres per pixel, respectively. To aid visibility, the images were magnified three times via linear interpolation; no contrast enhancement was performed.