Phoebe: Cartographic Projections (IMAGE)
Caption
This global digital map of Phoebe was created using data taken during the Cassini spacecraft's close flyby of the small moon in June 2004.
The mosaic is projected into the Mercator projection within the latitude range of 57 degrees south to 57 degrees north latitude; the stereographic projections represent latitudes greater/lower than ±55 degrees. (Thus, this map meets the standard scale of 1:1,000,000 recommended by the USGS [Kirk 1997, 2002, 2003].)
As proposed by Greeley et al. [1990] the projections are conformal, the quadrangles overlap and the scale of the poles was chosen such that the circumference of the stereographic projection is identical to the width of the Mercator projection.
The nomenclature was proposed by the Cassini imaging team and has yet to be validated by the International Astronomical Union. Resolution of the digital mosaics is 233 meters (764 feet) per pixel, although the highest resolution images have resolutions of 70 meters (230 feet) per pixel.
The mean radius of Phoebe is 106.8 kilometers (66 miles).
See PIA07775 for a separate global mosaic of Phoebe in Equidistant projection, derived from 27 narrow-angle camera images.
A Mercator projection is a map that preserves directions on a body, but distorts sizes, especially near the poles. Equidistant projections preserve distances on a body, with some distortion of area and direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
Credit
Cassini Imaging Team & NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
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