Stunning Flyover Videos of Saturn's Moons

By Nancy Atkinson - August 20, 2010 at 8:03 AM UTC | Planetary Science

Saturn's moons as you've never seen them before! By day,

Dr. Paul Schenk

works at the Lunar and Planetary Institute mapping the topography and geology of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, as well as the icy bodies of the outer solar system. But because "it's just plain cool," he has created some flyover videos of Saturn's satellites, using data from the Cassini spacecraft. Very cool, indeed! Above is a close-up, 3-D look at the walnut-shaped moon Iapetus. Scientists don't know why there is a ridge along the moon's equator, but in 2007, Cassini acquired a strip of color and stereo images along the ridge, and Schenk has created a flyover which shows the contrast in color and topography. There are "sharp peaks 15 to 20 kilometers above the surrounding dark cratered plains," Schenk writes. "These are among the highest peaks in the Solar System. Patches of bright pure water ice can be seen flanking these dark peaks, which have the brightness of soot."

And there's more! Below is one of my favorites from Schenk's collection of flyover videos, 3-D views of Inktomi, a very young crater on the moon Rhea.

Schenk's videos are based on Cassini orbiter stereo and color imaging data. "Basically stereo image pairs or mosaics are calibrated and formatted and then a computer algorithm is applied which measures the displacement of features from which their heights are calculated," Schenk told Universe Today, describing how he creates the videos. "When assembled you have a terrain model, voila!"

These videos take awhile to put together. "To run the computer model can take an hour or so or a full day depending on the size of the area and image," Schenk said. "Typically I require several hours for this to run. The real time consuming part for us with the Cassini data is the calibration and registration of the original raw images. This can take days, if not weeks, to get the calibrations right if you want an accurate map."

Here's another spectacular video, of Enceladus, specifically a closeup of Damascus Sulcus, one of the known jet source locations on the moon's "tiger stripe" fractures:

Schenk just recently had a book published an atlas of Jupiter's moon,

"Atlas of the Galilean Satellites,"

published by Cambridge University Press. Description:

Celebrating the 400th anniversary of their discovery in January and the announcement of that discovery (Sidereus Nuncius) in March of 1610. Here you will find details about this definitive new Volume, a valuable reference & resource for the Jupiter system.

You can enjoy more of Schenk's handiwork at his

You Tube page

, and also

at his website.

Hat tip: Stu Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com