NASA reveals Cassini probe's last glimpse of Saturn's icy moon Dione

NASA has released images from the Cassini probe's last fly-by of Saturn's moon Dione. The August 17 encounter captured Dione's icy pockmarked landscape from a distance of 474 kilometres above the moon's surface. Cassini came within 100km of Dione in December 2011. The images offer another look at the haunting moon and were …

[Martin]

Amazing photos, but...

...scale would be nice.

In that lower photo, are the cliffs a couple of metres high? a couple of miles high? or something in between?

[cray74]

Re: Amazing photos, but...

Closest approach this flight was 295 miles, but I don't know the magnification of the camera. I've found the raw images of the D-5 flyby but they don't have captions.

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/keywords/flyby

Derp, click on the photos for details. Me smart, me very smart. Here's that oblique shot El Reg used with captions.

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19651

The image was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera during a close flyby of the icy moon on Aug. 17, 2015. The view was acquired at an altitude of approximately 470 miles (750 kilometers) above Dione and has an image scale of about 150 feet (45 meters) per pixel. North on Dione is down.

So, closer to "miles" than "meters," since each pixel is 150 feet. And I have to say: "furlongs and cubits," just because I wanted to mix more measurements.

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Stunning imagery

The Cassini-Huygens missions has been such a huge success, it is sad (but inevitable) that it should end soon. A toast to the scientists and engineers who have worked so hard to make this a success. Looking forward to the extreme close ups of Enceladus and the other last fruits of the mission

[0laf]

Re: Stunning imagery

Sometimes NASA and ESA get things very right and the FSM touches the little machines with his noodly appendage and blesses the mission.

[Pascal Monett]

That is one battered landscape

Our Moon has plenty of craters, but it also has some flat areas. This moon appears to have nothing but craters inside or next to other craters. What a beating it took.

[MacroRodent]

rollercoaster ride

before the 'Grand Finale' where the craft will become a celestial flipper and dive through the pebbled world's rings.

That is going to be fun! Too bad Cassini cannot shoot HD video of this dive. I guess they will aim for one of the gaps in the rings, but it still risks hitting a stray chunk of ice, which probably is why this is done last.

[Anonymous Coward]

Photo titled: 'parting shot of Dione's icy cresent'

Are you sure its not a crafty taken photo of the back of Iain Duncan Smiths head when he went to see The Lego Movie at the pictures in Croyden?

[Drudgery Leak]

Re: Photo titled: 'parting shot of Dione's icy cresent'

Are you, dear AC, perchance the moneyed shepherd of that doomed gargantuan benefits cockup?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dione with Saturn and rings in rear.

Now appearing in Story of O?

[jake]

Thanks, NASA.

Damn, but Dione's pretty. Nice ::smooch:: too ;-)

[jinumm]

nice idea nasa

In practice, dictionary attacks are used, not rainbow tables. Salt is of little help:

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/05/how-crackers-make-minced-meat-out-of-your-passwords/3/

The hashes in that article were SHA1, not MD5 but they are both fast hash algorithms so they are vulnerable in the same way. especially on https://www.vouchermedia.com