April 26, 2010 - Tectonic Feast

Tectonic Feast NASA’s Cassini captured this mosaic of Enceladus as the spacecraft sped away from this geologically active moon of Saturn in October 2008. This southern region of the moon’s Saturn-facing hemisphere displays very few impact craters, but is replete with fractures, folds, and ridges—all hallmarks of remarkable tectonic activity for a world only 300 miles in diameter. Portions of the tiger stripe fractures, or sulci, are visible along the terminator at lower right, surrounded by a circumpolar belt of mountains. The icy moon’s famed jets emanate from at least eight distinct source regions, which lie on or near the tiger stripes. In this view, the most prominent feature is Labtayt Sulci, the approximately half-mile-deep northward-trending chasm located just above the center of the mosaic.

Image Credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute

Weekly Calendar

April 26 - May 2, 2010

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 26

1920: Shapley-Curtis debate on the nature and distance of spiral nebulae
1993: STS-55 Columbia launched

Tuesday 27

Wednesday 28

Full Moon 8:18 AM
Mercury in inferior conjunction

1900: Jan Oort born
1906: Bart Bok born
1928: Eugene Shoemaker born
1991: STS-39 Discovery launched
2001: Soyuz TM-32 launched; Dennis Tito becomes first space tourist
2003: GALEX launched
2006: CloudSat and CALIPSO launched

Thursday 29

Ceres appears stationary

1985: STS-51B Challenger launched

Friday 30

Saturday 1

1949: Gerard Kuiper discovers Nereid, moon of Neptune
1996: Comet Hyakutake closest approach to Sun

Sunday 2