Planet Landscapes

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Planet Landscapes

• Pictures and descriptions from
  http//space.jpl.nasa.gov/art/surfaces.html
• Simulator made by Troy Tenhet

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This image is rendered from the surface of the
Moon, with the Lunar Surveyor spacecraft seen
resting on the surface.
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This image is rendered from the surface of the
Sun, with the Solar probe seen in the sky above.
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This image is rendered from the surface of
Europa, with the Galileo spacecraft seen in the
sky above.
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This image is rendered from the surface of Mars,
with the Pathfinder spacecraft seen resting on
the surface.
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This image is rendered from the surface of
Mercury, with the Mariner 10 spacecraft seen in
the sky above.
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This image is rendered from the clouds of
Neptune, with the Voyager spacecraft seen in the
sky above.
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This image is rendered from the clouds of Uranus,
with the Voyager spacecraft seen in the sky
above.
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This image is rendered from the surface of Venus,
with the Magellan spacecraft seen in the sky
above.
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This image is rendered from the surface of Pluto
looking sunward with Charon very dark, and low in
the sky. Pluto is suspected of having a thin
atmosphere, which can be seen as a layer of haze
close to the horizon. Years from now, this
atmosphere may likely freeze and fall to the
surface.
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This image is rendered from the surface of
Enceladus, with the Cassini spacecraft seen in
the sky above.
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This narrow angle field-of-view artist's
rendering is drawn from the floor of Aeneas
crater, showing Dione's icy surface and the
irregular features inside the crater viewed from
space. Saturn, Titan, and the Cassini spacecraft
are all visible in the sky.
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This artist's rendering shows the notable bright
surface of icy Enceladus. In the foreground, an
ice geyser can be seen projecting a jet of vapor
into space. Enceladus is considered by some as
the source of the E ring (which can be very
faintly seen along Saturn's equatorial plane)
icy geysers may be responsible for sustaining the
E ring's supply of micrometer-sized particles.
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Hyperion is one of the smaller of Saturn's main
satellites, is irregular in shape, about 400 by
250 by 240 kilometers (250 by 160 by 150 miles),
and is noted for its odd scarp system. Scarps
like that shown in this narrow angle
field-of-view artist's rendering are long
cliff-like features, and may be as much as 30
kilometers (20 miles) above the main surface
level of the satellite.
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In this extremely narrow angle field-of-view
artist's rendering Iapetus, with its notable dark
surface, occupies the foreground with a dimly lit
crescent Saturn low in the sky. Iapetus' surface
shows some strange wavy ice formations, some low
scoured hills, and mountains in the background.
The Sun as well as three other satellites are
also visible.
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This artist's rendering is imaged near the center
of Herschel crater, which occupies a large
portion of Mimas' leading hemisphere. The near
ice formations comprise the central mountains of
the crater, with the crater walls visible in the
distance.
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This wide angle field-of-view artist's rendering
shows the surface of Pandora, one of the
shepherds of the F ring, a thin wispy band of
material just on the outside of the main rings of
Saturn. The F ring is brightly shown on the left
hand side of the picture, and Prometheus, the
companion shepherd can be seen farther on down
the ring on the inner side.
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This is a narrow angle field-of-view artist's
rendering from the bottom of a large ice crevasse
on the surface of Phoebe, the least known of all
the Saturnian satellites. Since Cassini will
never approach Phoebe closer than than 50,000
kilometers, no spacecraft is shown.
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This computer rendering shows the surface of
Rhea, Saturn's second largest satellite behind
Titan. Like Dione and Iapetus, there is a
noticeable difference between the two hemispheres
of the satellite. Rhea is a densely cratered
satellite, and this image shows two of the most
prominent craters, Izanagi (the larger) and
Izanami (the smaller), which partially overlap.
These craters are well into the southern
hemisphere. Saturn is seen on the horizon, and a
small meteor is seen striking the surface inside
the Izanagi crater.
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One of the most exciting features of Tethys (and
of the whole Saturnian system as well) is Ithaca
Chasma, a huge trench which extends from near the
north pole down almost all the way to the south
pole. It's average width is 100 kilometers (60
miles) and is 4-5 kilometers (2-3 miles) deep.
This artist's rendering is drawn from the lip of
the large chasm looking into it, with Saturn in
the background.
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This narrow angle field-of-view artist's
rendering shows Titan's surface with Saturn dimly
in the background through Titan's thick
atmosphere of methane, ethane and (mostly)
nitrogen. The Cassini spacecraft flys over the
surface with its High Gain Antenna pointed at the
Huygens probe as it reaches the surface. Thin
methane clouds dot the horizon, and a narrow
methane spring or "methanefall" flows from the
cliff at left and drifts mostly into vapor.
Smooth ice features rise out of the
methane/ethane lake, and crater walls can be seen
far in the distance.
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This image is rendered from the surface of an
asteroid, with the Galileo spacecraft seen in the
sky above.
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This image is rendered from the surface of a
comet, with the Stardust spacecraft seen in the
sky above.