08 August 2007
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
NASA recently published an intriguing image of Dione, Saturn's icy moon. Dione (1,126 km across), which shines in the gibbous phase, is bisected by Saturn's wonderful rings, seen edge-on.
Like our Moon (3,476 km across), Dione keeps the same side turned to its parent planet. Dione's Saturn-facing side is visible in this image. The giant ringed planet is just off to the right of the image. Dione orbits Saturn every 2.7 days, at an average distance of approximately 380,000 km.
The image was taken in visible light with Cassini's narrow-angle camera on 2 July 2007. The spacecraft was approximately 2.5 million km from Dione. Image scale is 15 km per pixel.
In Greek mythology, Dione was the mother of Aphrodite (Venus), goddess of love and beauty.
Further Reading
The Cassini-Huygens Mission
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
Two Small Moons Align
http://www.bibalex.org/eclipse2006/News_Details.aspx?id=217
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem