24 September 2007
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
NASA recently published an impressive picture of three moons of Saturn, which were parading near the outer edge of the planet's graceful rings. The image was acquired by the Saturn-orbiter Cassini spacecraft.
Rhea (1,528 km across), Saturn's second largest moon, is the largest of the three moons. Tethys (1,071 km across) loams in front of Rhea. Tiny Pandora (84 km across) is visible as a small dot near the ring, below center.
Cassini was looking down on the dark side of the rings from about 1° above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visual light with Cassini's narrow-angle camera on 2 August 2007. The spacecraft was at a distance of approximately 3.7 million km from Saturn.
Further Reading
Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist