16 July 2007
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
NASA recently published a breathtaking image of Saturn, the ringed giant, acquired by the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft. This is an infrared view of Saturn, showing the planet's immense shadow, stretching across the graceful rings.
A few of the Saturnian moons are visible as mere specks of light in this image. Tethys (1,071 km across) is the larger and brighter dot near the bottom of the scene. Pandora (84 km across) sits outside the F ring, below center. Epimetheus (116 km across) is the speck on the far side of the ringplane, immediately to the right of Saturn's limb. Most of the other objects near the rings are background stars.
The spacecraft was looking on the dark side of the rings from about 8° above the ringplane. The image brightness was enhanced to bring out the faint objects.
The image was taken with Cassini's wide-angle camera on 2 June 2007, applying an infrared filter. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.2 million km from Saturn. Image scale is 131 km per pixel.
Further Reading
Cassini-Huygens Mission
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
CICLOPS
http://ciclops.org/index.php?js=1
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist