The image was obtained by the Cassini probe

Aug 17, 2015 20:43 GMT  ·  By

NASA's Cassini probe, launched back in 1997, reached the Saturn system in 2004 and has since been exploring both the planet and its accompanying moons. 

Earlier this year, on April 11, the spacecraft obtained a detailed view of the surface of the Saturnian satellite Dione. The image, made public by NASA this August 17, is available below.

The picture, obtained from a distance of about 68,000 miles (approximately 110,000 kilometers) reveals a network of chasms crisscrossing the orb's surface.

These chasms, shown in this image at a scale of 2,000 feet (660 meters) per pixel, appear brighter than their surroundings. At first, astronomers assumed this brightness was due to frost deposits.

However, latest data indicates that the chasms appear brighter than the landscapes surrounding them because they accommodate for icy cliffs, researchers say.

“The nature of this terrain was unclear until Cassini showed that they weren't surface deposits of frost, as some had suspected, but rather a pattern of bright icy cliffs among myriad fractures,” NASA writes in the image's description.

Just a few hours ago, at about 11:30 a.m. PDT, the space agency's Cassini spacecraft completed its last close flyby of Saturn's moon Dione, coming as close as 295 miles (474 kilometers) to the orb's surface.

The probe will now leave Dione and Saturn's equatorial plane, and position itself to repeatedly dive through the space between the planet and the circles encompassing it. Then, sometime in 2017, it will be lights out for this mission.

A close-up view of Saturn's moon Dione
A close-up view of Saturn's moon Dione

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Artist's rendering of the Cassini probe
A close-up view of Saturn's moon Dione
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