Saturn's moons mapped in greater detail than ever before

HOUSTON, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- For the last two-plus decades, astronomers have been fascinated by Saturn's more than 150 moons and moonlets. And thanks to the hard work of NASA's Cassini probe, scientists have been able to map out a number of those moons in greater detail than ever before.

Cassini has been tirelessly touring the ringed planet and its exhaustingly full family of satellites for the last 10 years. The troves of data collected by the probe have allowed researchers at NASA to complete full-color maps of Saturn's six major icy moons -- Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Iapetus.

"The new maps are the best global, color maps of these moons to date, and the first to show natural brightness variations and high-resolution color together," NASA officials wrote in a recent press release.

The maps' colors offer a more expansive range than normal human vision can capture -- colors picked up by instrumentation that absorbs infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths. Changes in topography not easily observed in normal color becomes more apparent once enhanced by the rendering of additional wavelengths.

"Cassini's enhanced color views have yielded several important discoveries about the icy moons," officials pointed out.

The new maps are courtesy of Cassini's imaging team at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. The effort was headed by astronomer Paul Schenk. Viewers can see interactive before-and-after images of the new maps at NASA's website. The contrast helps illuminate the difference the Cassini probe has made in mapping out these elusive moons.