Narrow-angle camera view of surface of Enceladus

The southern polar terrain of Enceladus strewn with ice boulders in this view, one of the highest resolution images obtained so far by NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini of any world.

Some smearing of the image due to spacecraft motion is apparent in this scene, which was acquired as Enceladus raced past Cassini's field of view near the time of closest approach. At the time, the imaging cameras were pointed close to the moon's limb (edge), rather than directly below the spacecraft. This allowed for less motion blur than would have been apparent had the cameras pointed straight down. So the terrain imaged here was actually at a distance of 319 kilometres.

This image was taken during Cassini's close fly-by of 14 July 2005, from a distance of approximately 208 kilometres above Enceladus. Resolution in the image is about 4 metres per pixel. The image has been contrast enhanced to improve the visibility of surface.