A set of false coloured and colour enhanced images from NASA’s Rhea Image Gallery.

• False-Color Rhea - “Hemispheric color differences on Saturn’s moon Rhea are apparent in this false-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This image shows the side of the moon that always faces the planets. In this image, the left half of the visible disk of Rhea faces in the direction of rhea’s orbital motion around Saturn, while the right side faces the trailing direction. It is not unusual for large icy Saturnian satellites to exhibit hemispheric albedo (reflectivity) and color differences.”

• The Colorful Equator of Rhea - “Rhea sports a chain of bluish splotches along the equator that appear where fresh, bluish ice has been exposed on older crater rims. Cassini imaging scientists recently reported that they did not see evidence in Cassini images of a ring around Rhea. However, scientists analyzing these enhanced-color views suggest the bluish material could have been exposed by the crash of orbiting material - perhaps a ring - to the surface of Rhea in the not too distant past.”

• Tinted Rhea - “Scientists believe the reddish and bluish tints came from bombardments large and small. Icy material sprayed by the moon Enceladus hits Rhea head-on in it’s orbit around Saturn and leaves a coral-colored tint. Darker, rust-colored reddish hues paint the trailing hemisphere, or the side that faces backward in the moon’s orbit around Saturn. The reddish hues are thought to be caused by tiny particle strikes from circulating plasma, a gas-like state of matter so hot that atoms split into an ion and an electron, in Saturn’s magnetic environment.”

You can learn more about the images here, and information about other current missions here.