The brilliant B ring ends abruptly at the Huygens Gap -- the broad, dark band devoid of ring material seen here near left. This gap marks the inner edge of the Cassini Division, within which the five dim bands at left reside.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 6 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 29, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (637,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Structure in Saturn's narrow and complex F ring is seen here, including one of the faint strands (at the left) that Cassini has shown to curl around the planet in a tight, rotating spiral. Scientists think the spiral structure might be due to disturbance of micron-sized F-ring particles by a tiny moon (or moons).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and from just above the ringplane. The image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A trio of icy moons crowds together along the Cassini spacecraft's line of sight.
Brilliant Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across) sits on the planet's shadow-draped limb at center; Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles across at its widest point) is a bright speck hovering near the rings; and Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles across) is seen at lower right.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about a degree below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 28, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 291,000 kilometers (181,000 miles) from Enceladus. Scale in the image ranges from 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel on Enceladus to 32 kilometers (20 miles) per pixel on Saturn, in the background.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10481: Gathering of Moons sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini spacecraft spots a couple of large, wedge-shaped spokes in Saturn's B ring.
pokes are similar in appearance to those seen by the Voyager spacecraft (see PIA02275).
Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across) can be spotted interior to the narrow F ring at left. Pan (28 kilometers, or 17 miles across at its widest point) is barely visible within the Encke Gap, below center.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 26 degrees below the ringplane. Pan has been brightened in this image for better visibility. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 8, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 749,000 kilometers (465,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 31 degrees. Image scale is 41 kilometers (26 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10450: Like Spokes of Old sur le site de la NASA.
This close-up view is Cassini's best look yet at Saturn's tenuous innermost D ring. The narrow ringlet visible here is named "D68" and is the innermost discrete feature in the D ring. The image also clearly shows how the diffuse component of the D-ring tapers off as it approaches the planet.
The view is looking down on the dark side of the rings, with the planet's lower half being illuminated by reflected light from the rings. The upper half of the planet is also dark. The image was taken at a high phase angle -- the Sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle, which was 177 degrees. Viewing the rings at high phase angle makes the finest dusty particles visible.
The inner edge of the C ring enters the scene at the lower left, and Saturn's shadow cuts off the view of the rings. Several background stars can also be seen here.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 15, 2005, at a distance of approximately 293,000 kilometers (182,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Edge waves in the Keeler Gap betray the presence of the embedded moon Daphnis.
Though the Cassini spacecraft cannot see Daphnis (7 kilometers, or 4.3 miles across) in this image (because the spacecraft is looking at its dark side), the tiny moon is undoubtedly located right of center, where the inner edge waves cease and the outer waves begin. The little moon was discovered in Cassini images that revealed its signature waves in the Keeler gap (42 kilometers, or 26 miles wide).
At left lies the brilliant F ring with its flanking strands. The bright F ring core is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) wide.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 32 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 29, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 157 degrees. Image scale is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Two images of Saturn's A and B ring showcase the opposition effect, a brightness surge that is visible on Saturn's rings when the Sun is directly behind the spacecraft.
This view is of the B ring. See PIA08247 for the view of the A ring.
The opposition effect exists because of two contributing factors. One is due to the fact that the shadows of ring particles directly opposite the Sun from Cassini -- the region of opposition -- fall completely behind the particles as seen from the spacecraft. These shadows are thus not visible to the spacecraft: all ring particle surfaces visible to the spacecraft in these two images are in sunlight and therefore bright. Much farther away from the region of opposition, the ring particle shadows become more visible and the scene becomes less bright. The brightness falls off in a circular fashion around the opposition point. The main factor to the opposition surge in this image is an optical phenomenon called "coherent backscatter." Here, the electromagnetic signal from the rays of scattered sunlight making its way back to the spacecraft is enhanced near the region of opposition because, instead of canceling, the electric and magnetic fields comprising the scattered radiation fluctuate in unison.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 262,000 kilometers (163,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn and its rings are prominently shown in this color image, along with three of Saturn's smaller moons. From left to right, they are Prometheus, Pandora and Janus.
Prometheus and Pandora are often called the "F ring shepherds" as they control and interact with Saturn's interesting F ring, seen between them.
This image was taken on June 18, 2004, with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera 8.2 million kilometers (5.1 million miles) from Saturn. It was created using the red, green, and blue filters. Contrast has been enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Bright, kinked ringlets fill the Encke Gap, while the F ring glows brilliantly and displays its signature knots and flanking, diffuse ringlets.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 13 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 7, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 163 degrees. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This image shows the region of Saturn's rings known as the Cassini Division. It was taken by the narrow angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft after successful entry into Saturn's orbit. The view shows the dark, or unlit, side of the rings.
This image shows three density waves in Saturn's A ring. It was taken by the narrow angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft after successful entry into Saturn's orbit. The view shows the dark, or unlit, side of the rings.
In this fabulous close-up, Cassini peers directly through regions of the A, B and C rings (from top to bottom here) to glimpse shadows of the very same rings cast upon the planet's atmosphere. Near the top, shadows cast by ringlets in the Cassini division (center) look almost like a photo negative.
This type of image helps scientists probe the rings' structure in detail and provides information about the density of their constituent particles.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 26, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Fine, sharp-edged details and smooth gradients in the ring features of the Cassini Division are imaged here together at excellent resolution.
The faint ringlet in the dark gap left of center is a recently discovered feature, found in Cassini images (see PIA08937).
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 21 degrees below the ringplane. The scene takes in the entire Cassini Division (4,800 kilometers, or 2,980 miles wide), as well as the innermost region of the A ring at extreme left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 8, 2007 at a distance of approximately 476,000 kilometers (296,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 2 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This image captures several important targets of the Cassini mission: icy moons, rings, and the gaps in the rings that may contain small undiscovered moons.
Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is easily seen near lower right. Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) is visible left of center.
The 4,800-kilometer- (2,980-mile-) wide Cassini division is the dark swath at upper left. The Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 202 miles wide) is visible as a dark curve near the edge of the A ring. The thin F ring is seen here, exterior to the main rings.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Sept. 10, 2004, at a distance of 8.9 million kilometers (5.5 million miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft or phase, angle of 84 degrees. The image scale is 53 kilometers (33 miles) per pixel. The image was magnified by a factor of four to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The best view of Saturn's rings in the ultraviolet indicates there is more ice toward the outer part of the rings, than in the inner part, hinting at the origins of the rings and their evolution.
Images taken during the Cassini spacecraft's orbital insertion on June 30 show compositional variation in the A, B and C rings. From the inside out, the "Cassini Division" in faint red at left is followed by the A ring in its entirety. The Cassini Division at left contains thinner, dirtier rings than the turquoise A ring, indicating a more icy composition. The red band roughly three-fourths of the way outward in the A ring is known as the Encke gap.
The ring system begins from the inside out with the D, C, B and A rings followed by the F, G and E rings. The red in the image indicates sparser ringlets likely made of "dirty," and possibly smaller, particles than in the icier turquoise ringlets.
This image was taken with the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph instrument, which is capable of resolving the rings to show features up to 97 kilometers (60 miles) across, roughly 100 times the resolution of ultraviolet data obtained by the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph was built at, and the team is based at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph team home page, http://lasp.colorado.edu/cassini/.
Like a rope of brilliant neon, Saturn's rings outshine everything else in this night side view, while the sunlit southern face of the rings reflects a dim glow onto the atmosphere below. When viewed nearly edge-on, the rings often appear very bright.
Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) and Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) are mere specks to the left of the ring edge, Epimetheus being the outermost of the pair.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 17, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 75 degrees. The image scale is 164 kilometers (102 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft has revealed a never-before-seen level of detail in Saturn's F ring, including evidence for the perturbing effect of small moonlets orbiting in or close to the ring's bright core.
For some time, scientists have suspected the presence of tiny moonlets that orbit Saturn in association with the clumpy ring. As the small satellites move close to the F ring core they leave a gravitational signature. In some cases they can draw out material in the form of a "streamer"—a miniature version of the interaction Cassini has witnessed between Prometheus and the F ring material. The dynamics of this interaction are the same, but the scale is different. See PIA06143 for a view of Prometheus creating a streamer.
Scientists speculate that there could be several small moons with a variety of sizes involved in the creation of structures like the one seen here.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 255,000 kilometers (159,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 29 degrees. Scale in the original image was 1 kilometer (3,873 feet) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast enhanced.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Now, in southern summer, Saturn's shadow stretches across the sunlit southern surface of its rings. Saturn's moon Janus orbits just outside of the main rings and appears below them in this scene. Janus is absolutely dwarfed by the bulk of its gigantic parent. Janus is 181 kilometers (113 miles) across.
Bands of ring material within the Cassini Division are visible here, near the outer edge of the bright B ring. The planet's night side is visible at the right. This view is from Cassini's vantage point beneath the ring plane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Jan. 17, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (746,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 66 kilometers (41 miles) per pixel. Janus was brightened by a factor of two, and contrast in the scene was enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For images visit the Cassini imaging team home page http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft monitors the myriad cloud forms that drift in Saturn's atmosphere, helping scientists gain a better understanding of how energy is transported around, and from within, the planet.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 23 degrees above the ringplane. Saturn's shadow hides the rings at top.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 25, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 94 kilometers (58 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09873: Following the Clouds sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft spies two of the small, irregular moons that patrol the outer edges of Saturn's main rings.
Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) hugs the interior of the F ring right of center, while Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) hangs in the foreground below center. Hints of craters can be seen on Janus.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 14, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This close-up view of the inner A ring shows intriguing variations in brightness along the direction of ring motion -- from top to bottom. Close examination reveals dark regions that appear to widen and then narrow, and thin bright regions that disappear altogether.
Variations in brightness are to be expected in the direction of increasing orbital distance from Saturn, but variations along the azimuthal (or circumferential) direction are unusual, as they should be smoothed out quickly by ring particle motion.
(The faint "doughnut" left of center and the dark area in the lower right corner are imaging artifacts.)
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 285,000 kilometers (177,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Daphnis drifts through the Keeler gap, at the center of its entourage of waves.
The little moon (7 kilometers, or 4.3 miles across) draws material in the Keeler gap (42 kilometers, or 26 miles wide) into these now familiar edge waves as it orbits Saturn.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 25 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 27, 2006 at a distance of approximately 325,000 kilometers (202,000 miles) from Daphnis and at a Sun-Daphnis-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 36 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Tethys passes silently between Saturn and Cassini as a train of storms rumbles through the planet's southern hemisphere. The rings' shadows darken the planet at top.
Tethys is 1,062 kilometers (660 miles) across.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 4, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (756,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 69 kilometers (43 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10425: Peace Above, Turmoil Below sur le site de la NASA.
Many features in Saturn's rings are thought to be induced by the gravity of the planet's moons. This view shows two different kinds of waves that are thought to be produced by different moon-related effects.
Most of the waves seen here, including the prominent feature near center, are spiral density waves. These waves wrap around the planet many times like a watch spiral. They are the result of gravitational tugs by individual moons whose orbits are in a resonance with the particles at a specific distance from Saturn.
The bright and dark areas in the wave represent more-dense and less-dense regions of the ring. For this type of wave, the wavelength--the distance between bright peaks in each wave--decreases with increasing distance from Saturn (toward left in this image).
By contrast, the wavelength of the intense feature at right decreases toward Saturn (toward right here), indicating that this is a different kind of wave called a spiral bending wave. This wave also winds multiple times around Saturn, but it represents vertical undulations in the ring plane, like a corrugated tin roof. This type of wave is produced by gravitational tugs by moons on inclined orbits as they venture just slightly out of the ringplane.
Cassini scientists will be carefully watching for shadows cast by spiral bending waves as equinox occurs in Aug. 2009 and the Sun passes from the south side of the rings to the north side. The shadows could reveal the height of the bending waves, providing an indirect way to measure key properties of the ring.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 35 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 219,000 kilometers (136,000 miles) above the rings and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 127 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel in the radial, or outward from Saturn direction and 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel in the longitudinal, or around Saturn, direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10501: Two Kinds of Wave sur le site de la NASA.
As the ringed giant tugged on the Cassini spacecraft, urging it to make yet another orbit, the intrepid spacecraft took in this all-encompassing panorama. This view was acquired near apoapse -- the farthest point from Saturn in the Cassini spacecraft's elliptical orbit. Even from this distant vantage point, the planet and its rings were still too large to fit into a single frame; this view is a mosaic of two images.
The rings are the source of the dark, curving shadows on the northern hemisphere. Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is visible as a speck of light just above the rings at left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 12, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.2 million kilometers (2 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 87 degrees. The image scale is 193 kilometers (120 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Bright undulations disturb a faint ringlet drifting through the center of the Encke Gap. This ring structure shares the orbit of the moon Pan.
A second, fainter ringlet is visible below the central ringlet.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 44 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 14, 2006 at a distance of approximately 462,000 kilometers (287,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 2 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Two bright vortices roll across the cloud-lined face of Saturn, where winds howl at high speeds never experienced on Earth.
This view was acquired at about the same time as PIA08864 but the planet appears darker here. This is because the spectral filter used to acquire this image looks at a part of the spectrum where methane absorption in Saturn's atmosphere is stronger. Thus, photons do not penetrate as deep into the Saturn atmosphere as they do at the wavelengths observed in PIA08864. Since more photons are absorbed here, the planet looks darker.
The icy particles composing the rings do not contain methane, and therefore appear bright relative to Saturn.
The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 862 nanometers. The view was obtained using the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 13, 2006 at a distance of approximately 775,000 kilometers (481,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 43 kilometers (27 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The ringed planet sits in repose, the center of its own macrocosm of many rings and moons and one artificial satellite named Cassini. Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is visible at upper left. Although unseen in this view, Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across) casts its shadow upon the planet. The rings also block the sun's light from the low latitudes of the northern hemisphere.
During Cassini's extended mission, dubbed the Cassini Equinox Mission, which begins on July 1, 2008, the ring shadows will slip past the planet's equator and into the southern hemisphere as Saturn passes through its northern vernal equinox on August 11, 2009, and the sun moves northward through the ring plane.
This view looks down on the un-illuminated side of the rings from about 22 degrees above (north of) the ring plane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 16, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 86 kilometers (53 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA08414: Perspective on Saturn sur le site de la NASA.
As ring particles emerge from the darkness of Saturn's shadow, they pass through a region of twilight. The Sun's light, refracted by the planet's atmosphere, peeks around the limb, followed shortly by the Sun itself (see PIA08329 for an example of this effect).
The "penumbra" is the narrow fringe region of the planet's shadow where part (but not all) of the Sun is visible around the side of the planet, creating only a partial shadow there and making the shadow edge look fuzzy.
The A and F rings are captured here. This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 20 degrees above the ringplane. Two faint ringlets can be seen within the Encke gap, which stretches out of the blackness at center and toward right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 12, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 163 degrees. Image scale is about 9 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft surveys Saturn's outstretched ring system in the infrared from a vantage point high above the planet's northern latitudes. Nearly the full expanse of the main rings is visible here -- from the C ring to the outer edge of the A ring (in the upper left corner).
Ring shadows are visible on the planet at lower left, and two large storms swirl near center.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 52 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 (red channel), 890 (blue channel) and 728 (green channel) nanometers. The view was acquired on April 5, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 81 kilometers (51 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
In a dazzling and dramatic portrait painted by the Sun, the long thin shadows of Saturn's rings sweep across the planet's northern latitudes. Within the shadows, bright bands represent areas where the ring material is less dense, while dark strips and wave patterns reveal areas of denser material.
The shadow darkens sharply near upper right, corresponding to the boundary of the thin C ring with the denser B ring. A wide-field, natural color view of these shadows can be seen in PIA06164.
The globe of Saturn's moon Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) has wandered into view near the bottom of the frame. A few of the large craters on this small moon are visible.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 18, 2005, at a distance of 1.4 million kilometers (889,000 miles) from Saturn using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The image scale is 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For images visit the Cassini imaging team home page http://ciclops.org.
The shepherd moons Prometheus and Pandora drive the quirky F ring in its circuit of Saturn, while Mimas lurks in the distance.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 22 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 23, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 106 kilometers (66 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The spoke-forming region in the outer part of Saturn's B ring is often seen to exhibit the irregular, patchy appearance around the ring that is visible in this Cassini view.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 5 degrees above the ringplane. The Cassini Division is visible at lower left.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 21, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 68 degrees. Image scale is about 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09789: B Ring Irregularities sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's rings cut across their own shadows on the planet and hide a tiny secret.
Barely visible in the Encke Gap is the embedded moon Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across). The Encke Gap is the thin, dark line near the rings' outer edge; Pan is a faint speck halfway between center and right.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 5 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 18, 2007, using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 20 kilometers (13 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft stares toward Saturn through its gauzy veil of rings. The great ice-particle screen acts like a filter here, attenuating the glare from the planet and making its high altitude haze easy to see.
The F ring shows off the faint ringlets flanking its core, and a single ringlet can be seen in the Encke Gap, crossing through center.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 4, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 161 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looked toward the darkened night side of Saturn to capture the eerie glow of the rings, which, not being blocked by the planet's bulk, remained brilliant in full sunlight.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005, at a distance of approximately 286,000 kilometers (178,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
In a rare moment, the Cassini spacecraft captured this enduring portrait of a near-alignment of four of Saturn's restless moons. Timing is critical when trying to capture a view of multiple bodies, like this one. All four of the moons seen here were on the far side of the rings from the spacecraft when this image was taken; and about an hour later, all four had disappeared behind Saturn.
Seen here are Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) and Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) at bottom; Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) hugs the rings at center; Telesto (24 kilometers, or 15 miles across) is a mere speck in the darkness above center.
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 17, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Titan and 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Dione. The image scale is 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel on Dione and 21 kilometers (13 miles) per pixel on Titan.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.A fleet of small moons patrols the outskirts of Saturn's icy rings.
The shepherd moons Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) are seen respectively interior and exterior to the narrow F ring at lower left.
Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) appears at center right, and Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is visible at lower right.
A 2007 movie sequence acquired during a Cassini ringplane crossing (PIA08356) presents a similar view, with moons in motion.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 14 degrees above the ringplane. A background star is faintly visible directly between Prometheus and Mimas.
The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on March 16, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (960,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 97 kilometers (60 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09890: The Orbiting Fleet sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini gazes down toward Saturn's unilluminated ringplane to find Janus hugging the outer edge of rings.
This view looks toward the rings from about three degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 29, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Janus. Image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This movie shows a bright arc of material flashing around the edge of Saturn's G ring, a tenuous ring outside the main ring system.
The arc is the same feature identified in images of the G ring taken in May 2005 (see PIA07718). Scientists have seen the arc a handful of times over the past year, and it always appears to be a few times brighter than the rest of the ring and very tightly confined to a narrow strip along the inside edge of the G ring.
Imaging team members believe that this feature is long-lived and may be held together by resonant interactions with the moon Mimas of the type that corral similar ring arcs around Neptune.
The movie consists of 15 frames acquired every half hour over a period of seven-and-a-half hours. The version in the lower panel is vertically stretched by a factor of five to make the arc easier to see.
The clear-filter images in this movie sequence were acquired by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 25, 2006, at a distance of 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is about 24 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA07805: Persistent Arc sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini's confirmation that a small moon orbits within the Keeler gap in Saturn's rings is made all the more exciting by this image, in which the disk of the 7 kilometer-wide body (4-miles) is resolved for the first time.
The new body, provisionally named S/2005 S1, was first seen in a time-lapse sequence of images taken on May 1, 2005, as Cassini began its climb to higher elevations in orbit around Saturn (see PIA06238 for the movie). This view was acquired one day after the discovery sequence of images and has allowed scientists to measure the moon's size and brightness.
The Keeler gap edges also bear similarities to the scalloped edges ofthe 322-kilometer-wide (200-mile) Encke gap, where Pan resides. From thesize of the waves seen in the Encke gap, imaging scientists were able toestimate the mass of Pan. They expect to do the same eventually with this new moon.
This image was obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 2, 2005, at a distance of about 594,000 kilometers (369,000 miles) from Saturn. Cassini was about 525,000 kilometers (326,000 miles) above the ringplane when the image was taken. Resolution in the original image was 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two, and contrast has been enhanced, to aid visibility of the small moonlet.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Two of Saturn's moons make appearances in this view in very different ways.
Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) glides past at bottom, near the edge-on ringplane. Above are the arcing shadows cast onto the northern hemisphere by the rings, along with the shadow of Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) against a backdrop of wispy clouds. Mimas' shadow appears elliptical due to its projection onto the spheroidal shape of Saturn's visible atmosphere.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 5, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 4 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 47 kilometers (29 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Multiple tenuous strands flank the brilliant core of Saturn's F ring. These delicate, flanking ringlets wind through the F ring, creating a tight spiral.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 35 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 10, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 262,000 kilometers (163,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 137 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09919: F Ring Close-up sur le site de la NASA.
Two of Saturn's ring moons draw close momentarily, before the inner of the pair moves off alone.
Atlas (30 kilometers, or 19 miles across, at center right) passes Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across, at center left) about once a month, then slowly and steadily pulls ahead of its slower moving sibling.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 23 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 6, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (975,000 miles) from Atlas. Image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09897: Moons that Pass in the Night sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's northern hemisphere is visible through its disc of icy particles.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the A ring from about 21 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 19, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 806,000 kilometers (501,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 4 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10410: Behind the Veil sur le site de la NASA.
This image of the lit face of Saturn's outer, or A, ring was taken by the Cassini spacecraft shortly after crossing the ring plane after its orbit insertion burn. The image was taken with the narrow angle camera on July 1, 2004. The rings in the middle of the image are approximately 134,000 kilometers (83,200 miles) from the center of Saturn.
The bright wave pattern near the center of the image is caused by the overlap between spiral waves of varying particle density generated by Saturn's moons Janus and Epimetheus, which share an orbit. These two moon orbital periods are very close to each other and, at this location, affect ring particle orbits.
Cleaner spiral patterns caused by single satellites can be seen in other images; some of the weaker wave patterns in this image are also spiral patterns generated by smaller moons outside the main rings. All these spiral waves are of the same nature as the arms of spiral galaxies. The finest features which can be discerned (inwards, or to the left, of the bright wave feature in the center) are less than one mile across. Their cause is not currently known.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
JPL manages the Voyager project for NASA's Office of Space Science.
Voir l'image PIA01531: Saturn's B and C-rings sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's G ring glows like a neon garland in this lovely narrow angle camera image from Cassini. The comparison between the diffuse outer boundary and the sharp inner edge of this ring, which consists of fine, dust-sized icy particles, is particularly noteworthy. Close Cassini views such as this should provide ring scientists with clues about how this ring is produced and confined.
The G ring extends from 166,000 to 173,200 kilometers (103,100 to 107,600 miles) from Saturn's center. (Saturn is 120,500 kilometers [74,900 miles] wide at its equator.)
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Oct. 24, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 12 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.Three of the small worlds that hug the outer edges of Saturn's immense ring system are captured in this Cassini spacecraft portrait.
The two F ring shepherd moons, Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) are seen flanking the ring at bottom. Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is visible near the top of the scene.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 18, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 61 kilometers (38 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's F ring displays magnificent structure following the passage of Prometheus. Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is seen between the A and F rings, above center.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 28 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 23, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 41 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09848: Trailing Prometheus sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's brilliant limb shines through the semi-transparent A ring, while the outer F ring shepherd moon hangs against the black sky.
F-ring shepherding moon Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles across), along with the inner shepherd moon Prometheus (see PIA09887), helps to keep the narrow lanes of the F ring in check.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 15 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 5, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (814,000 miles) from Pandora. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09899: The Shepherd and Saturn sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft looks down at the unlit side of the rings as Pan heads into Saturn's shadow. The moon is accompanied by faint ringlets in the Encke Gap.
At bottom, the bright F ring core fades slowly into darkness.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 20 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 15, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 163 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The dark Cassini Division, within Saturn's rings, contains a great deal of structure, as seen in this color image. The sharp inner boundary of the division (left of center) is the outer edge of the massive B ring and is maintained by the gravitational influence of the moon Mimas.
Spectroscopic observations by Cassini indicate that the Cassini Division, similar to the C ring, contains more contaminated ice than do the B and A rings on either side.
This view is centered on a region approximately 118,500 kilometers (73,600 miles) from Saturn's center. (Saturn is 120,500-kilometers-wide (74,900 miles) at its equator.) From left to right, the image spans approximately 11,000 kilometers (6,800 miles) across the ringplane.
A closer view of the outer edge of the Cassini Division can be seen in PIA07616).
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this view, which approximates what the human eye might see. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 18, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A new diffuse ring, coincident with the orbits of Saturn's moon's Janus and Epimetheus, has been revealed in ultra-high phase angle views from Cassini. Ultra-high phase angle indicates the sun is behind the target.
The new ring is visible in this image (marked by a cross in figure 1) outside the overexposed main rings and interior to the G and E rings. The G ring has a sharp inner boundary; the E ring is extremely broad and arcs across the upper and lower portions of the scene.
While it is not unexpected that impact events on Janus and Epimetheus might kick particles off the moons' surfaces and inject them into Saturn orbit, it is, surprising that a well-defined structure exists at this location.
The view looks down from about 15 degrees above the un-illuminated side of the rings. Some faint spokes can also be spotted in the main rings, made visible by sunlight diffusing through the B ring.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 15, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle of almost 179 degrees. Image scale is approximately 250 kilometers (155 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This view is part of a montage of images from the NASA Cassini and Voyager missions shown in PIA07714. The inset image from the montage is presented here by itself and in its original orientation.
Cassini has observed the D-ring at much higher resolution than was possible for Voyager, revealing surprising fine-scale structures. This narrow-angle camera image was taken on May 21, 2005, and shows the region between the D ring feature named D73 and the inner edge of the C-ring at 2 kilometer (1 mile) per pixel resolution. This region contains a periodic wave-like structure with a wavelength of 30 kilometers (19 miles). The faint horizontal bands in the image are instrumental artifacts.
The fine structure in the D-ring (visible here) could be related to perturbations from the planet or its magnetic field. The Cassini results provide information about the dynamics of ring particles in a new regime -- one very close to the planet and sparsely populated by icy particles the size of dust.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Cassini spies two icy denizens of the Saturn System as they hurtle past.
The view captures Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) at bottom, with Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) about 48,000 kilometers (30,000 miles) farther beyond.
This scene looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 3 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 6, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.8 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Mimas. Image scale is approximately 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel on both moons.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09780: Saturnian Citizens sur le site de la NASA.
An intriguing knotted ringlet within the Encke Gap is the main attraction in this Cassini image. The Encke Gap is a small division near the outer edge of Saturn's rings that is about 300 kilometers (190 miles) wide. The tiny moon Pan (20 kilometers, or 12 miles across) orbits within the gap and maintains it. Many waves produced by orbiting moons are visible.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 29, 2004, at a distance of about 807,000 kilometers (501,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Nine days before it entered orbit, Cassini spacecraft captured this exquisite natural color view of Saturn's rings. The images that make up this composition were obtained from Cassini's vantage point beneath the ring plane with the narrow angle camera on June 21, 2004, at a distance of 6.4 million kilometers (4 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 38 kilometers (23 miles) per pixel.
The brightest part of the rings, curving from the upper right to the lower left in the image, is the B ring. Many bands throughout the B ring have a pronounced sandy color. Other color variations across the rings can be seen. Color variations in Saturn's rings have previously been seen in Voyager and Hubble Space Telescope images. Cassini's images show that color variations in the rings are more pronounced in this viewing geometry than they are when seen from Earth.
Saturn's rings are made primarily of water ice. Since pure water ice is white, it is believed that different colors in the rings reflect different amounts of contamination by other materials such as rock or carbon compounds. In conjunction with information from other Cassini instruments, Cassini images will help scientists determine the composition of different parts of Saturn's ring system.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Two dark gores in Saturn's F ring demonstrate the gravitational influence of the shepherd moon Prometheus.
The older gore at the top of this view is at a steeper angle than the newer addition just above and to the left of Prometheus, since the former has sheared out over the course of an orbit: particles on the inner (right) side of the F ring travel faster in the same amount of time than the particles on the outer (left) side, leaving the outer particles behind.
Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) is lit at left by direct sunlight and at right by reflected light from Saturn. The bright, sunlit portion of the moon is overexposed.
Two background stars are captured above Prometheus in this view, which looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 33 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 1, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (956,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 62 degrees. Image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09834: Gravity of the Situation sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's density is so low, and its rotation is so fast, that the planet bulges around its waistline as is spins.
Saturn is nearly 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) wider at its equator than at its poles, and its oblateness is clearly visible in this view.
The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 2 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 2, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 109 kilometers (68 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This movie sequence from Cassini shows dark drapes in the inner strands of Saturn's F ring caused by the gravitational influence of the shepherd moon Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across).
Prometheus appears first in the sequence, interior to the F ring, and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) follows along outside of the ring. Radial structure in the bright core of the ring is visible throughout the movie.
Prometheus orbits closer to Saturn, and thus faster, than the icy particles that make up the F ring. The moon passes closest to the ring at "apoapse," when it is farthest from Saturn. It is during these apoapse passages that Prometheus has its greatest influence on the fine ring material. With time, the ring material previously affected falls behind so that on the next apoapse passage of Prometheus, a new gore in the inner ring material is made. The material closer to Prometheus orbits the planet faster than the material closer to the bright F ring core. The gores, together with the sheared-out material, create the dark, diagonal drapes.
Several background stars are seen moving across the field during the movie.
The images in this sequence were acquired on April 13, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. The images were obtained in visible light using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The usually bright B ring (at center) appears very dim in this view of the rings taken on the side of the rings that is not illuminated. The scene resembles a photographic negative, with bright and dark areas reversed (although in some places in the rings, the blackness of space is seen.) From this viewing angle, the rings are lit from below: both dense and empty regions are dark, and regions of intermediate particle density are bright.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Oct. 27, 2004, at a distance of about 631,000 kilometers (392,000 miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of visible violet light. The image scale is 34 kilometers (21 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The dark side of the ringplane glows with scattered light, including the luminous F ring, which shines like a rope of brilliant neon. Below, Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) presents an exquisitely thin crescent.
The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The image was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 3, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 160 degrees. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The brilliant core of the F ring displays a breakaway clump of material, possibly related to the other objects the Cassini spacecraft has witnessed in the dynamic ring in the past few years of observations.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 58 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 10, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn sits nested in its rings of ice as Cassini once again plunges toward the graceful giant.
This natural color mosaic was acquired by the Cassini spacecraft as it soared 39 degrees above the unilluminated side of the rings.
Little light makes its way through the rings to be scattered in Cassini's direction in this viewing geometry, making the rings appear somewhat dark compared to the reflective planet. The view can be contrasted with earlier mosaics designed to showcase the rings rather than the planet, which were therefore given longer exposure times (see PIA08362 and PIA08361).
Bright clouds play in the blue-gray skies of the north. The ring shadows continue to caress the planet as they slide farther south toward their momentary disappearance during equinox in 2009. The rings' reflected light illuminates the southern hemisphere on Saturn's night side.
The scene is reminiscent of the parting glance of NASA's Voyager 1 as it said goodbye to Saturn in 1981 (see PIA00335). Cassini, however, will continue to orbit Saturn for many years to come.
Three of Saturn's moons are visible in this image: Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) at the 2 o'clock position, Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) at the 4 o'clock position and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) at the 8 o'clock position. Pandora is a faint speck just outside the narrow F ring.
This mosaic was constructed from wide-angle camera images taken just before the narrow-angle camera mosaic PIA08389.
The view combines 45 images -- 15 separate sets of red, green and blue images--taken over the course of about two hours, as Cassini scanned across the entire main ring system.
The images in this view were obtained on May 9, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 62 kilometers (39 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini's celestial sleuthing has paid off with a series of images which confirmed earlier suspicions that a small moon was orbiting within the narrow Keeler gap within Saturn's rings.
This view was created by combining six individual, unmagnified frames from the movie sequence of images in which the moon was discovered. The digital composite view improves the overall resolution of the scene compared to that available in any of the single images (see PIA06238 for the movie sequence).
The Keeler gap is located about 250 kilometers (155 miles) inside the outer edge of the A ring, which is also the outer edge of the bright main rings. The new object is about 7 kilometers (4 miles) across and reflects about 50 percent of the sunlight light that falls upon it -- a brightness that is typical of particles in the nearby rings.
The new body has been provisionally named S/2005 S1.
Imaging scientists predicted the moon's presence and its orbital distance from Saturn after July 2004, when they saw a set of peculiar spiky and wispy features in the Keeler gap's outer edge. The similarities of the Keeler gap features to those noted in Saturn's F ring and the Encke gap led the scientists to conclude that a small body, a few kilometers across, was lurking in the center of the Keeler gap, awaiting discovery.
Also included here is a view of the same scene created by combining six individual, unmagnified frames used in the movie sequence. This digital composite view improves the overall resolution of the scene compared to that available in any of the single images.
These images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (708,000 miles) from Saturn. Resolution in the original image was 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel. The images in the movie sequence have been magnified in (the vertical direction only) by a factor of two to aid visibility of features caused within the gap by the moonlet.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's atmosphere is essentially transparent at wavelengths visible to the human eye, but when the view through the atmosphere is oblique, as it is along the planet's limb (edge), it will distort anything seen through it. The refracted image of the rings in this image taken by Cassini of Saturn's night side abruptly terminates where Saturn's high-altitude haze becomes opaque.
Saturn's F ring shepherd moon Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) hovers below the center. Had an image like this been taken a few minutes earlier, the appearance of Prometheus would also have been warped.
Near the left edge of the image, the appearance of the Encke Gap in Saturn's rings is being refracted. As the gap emerges from behind the planet, its image is bent less and less, following the decreasing density profile of the atmosphere with altitude. The appearance of the Cassini Division is warped as well, near the top of this scene. The refraction effect is slightly different in this visible light image than in a previously released infrared view (see PIA06656).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 28, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
This detailed look at Saturn's A ring captures Daphnis in the narrow Keeler Gap. The small moon creates complex wave patterns in the gap edges that Cassini scientists are working to understand.
To the right of the Keeler Gap, the outer A-ring edge is significantly brighter than the rest of the ring.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 32 degrees above the ringplane. Daphnis is 8 kilometers (5 miles) wide.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 31, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (629,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10419: Rough Around the Edges sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's D ring--the innermost of the planet's rings -- sports an intriguing structure that appears to be a wavy, or "vertically corrugated," spiral. This continuously changing ring structure provides circumstantial evidence for a possible recent collision event in the rings.
Support for this idea comes from the appearance of a structure in the outer D-ring that looks, upon close examination, like a series of bright ringlets with a regularly spaced interval of about 30 kilometers (19 miles). When viewed along a line of sight nearly in the ringplane, a pattern of brightness reversals is observed: a part of the ring that appears bright on the far side of the rings appears dark on the near side of the rings, and vice versa (see PIA08326).
This phenomenon would occur if the region contains a sheet of fine material that is vertically corrugated, like a tin roof. In this case, variations in brightness would correspond to changing slopes in the rippled ring material (see figure 1).
An observation made with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 also saw a periodic structure in the outer D ring, but its wavelength was then 60 kilometers (37 miles). There were insufficient observations to discern the spiral nature of the feature. Thus, it appears the wavelength of the wavy structure has been decreasing: that is, this feature has been winding up like a spring over time.
The rate at which the pattern appears to be winding up is quite close to the rate scientists would expect for a vertically corrugated spiraling sheet of material at this location in the rings that is responding to gravitational forcing from Saturn.
As Cassini imaging scientists extrapolated the spiraling trend backward in time, they found that it completely unwound in 1984, leaving only an inclined, or tilted, sheet of material. The researchers speculate such an inclined sheet may have been produced around that time by the impact of a comet or meteoroid into the D ring which kicked out a cloud of fine particles that ultimately inherited some of the tilt of the impactor's trajectory as it slammed into the rings. Another possibility is that the impactor struck an already inclined moonlet, shattered it to bits and the debris remained in an inclined orbit.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Click on the image for movie of
Janus-Epimetheus Swing
In this movie sequence, Cassini watches Saturn's moon Janus and Epimetheus in their orbital dance as the F ring slides out of view.
These two moons are locked in a gravitational tango that causes them to swap positions about every four years, with one becoming the innermost of the pair and the other becoming the outermost.
The movie was created from eight original images taken over the course of 11 minutes as the spacecraft's narrow angle camera remained pointed toward Epimetheus. Although Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) moves a greater distance across the field of view, Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) also moved perceptibly during this time. The images were aligned to keep Epimetheus close to the center of the scene. Additional frames were inserted between the eight Cassini images to smooth the appearance of the moons' movement--a scheme called interpolation.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Janus and 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Epimetheus. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Janus and 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A transitional region in Saturn's atmosphere features long, linear cloud shapes, flanked to the north and south by more turbulent swirls. At top center in this view swirls a dark vortex ringed by bright clouds.
The view is centered on a region 44 degrees north of the Saturnian equator. North is up.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 8, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.9 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 17 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09796: Cloud Detail sur le site de la NASA.
A small ring-embedded moon coasts into view from behind shadow-draped Saturn. The rings' image is distorted near Saturn by the planet's upper atmosphere, to the right of Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across).
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 8 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera Dec. 22, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Pan. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Pan.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09822: Pan in View sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn hosts its own miniature solar system, with an entourage of more than 30 moons. This image shows Saturn's A and F rings, along with three of the moons that orbit close to them.
From innermost to outermost, tiny Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles, across) orbits just outside of the bright A ring and is seen above center in this view. Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles, across) is visible near lower right. Prometheus and its smaller cohort, Pandora, shepherd the thin, knotted F ring. Finally Janus (181 kilometers, or 112 miles, across) can be seen near lower left. Janus shares its orbit with the moon Epimetheus.
Density waves due to Janus cause some of the bright bands seen in the A ring in this image. Prometheus and Atlas also produce waves in the rings, but their wave regions are too narrow to be seen here. The interactions of the moons with each other and the rings are a major target of study for the Cassini mission.
The planet's shadow stretches all the way across the main rings in this view. The shadow has an oval shape at present, but over the next few years will become more rectangular as the planet orbits the Sun and the angle at which sunlight strikes the rings decreases. For an example of this from NASA's Voyager mission, see http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00335.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 6, 2004, at a distance of 6.4 million kilometers (4 million miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of visible red light. The image scale is 38 kilometers (24 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Stately Saturn sits surrounded by its darkened disk of ice. An increasing range of hues has become visible in the northern hemisphere as spring approaches and the ring shadows slide southward.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 17 degrees above the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 15, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (906,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 84 kilometers (52 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09906: Revealing Saturn's Colors sur le site de la NASA.
This high-resolution view shows, at left, a spiral density wave in Saturn's inner B ring. A spiral density wave is a spiral-shaped massing of particles that tightly winds many times around the planet. These waves decrease in wavelength with increasing distance from the planet.
Scientists use images like this one to understand the mass of the rings and the collisional dynamics of the ring particles.
The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 50 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 10, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 279,000 kilometers (173,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10408: Tight Spiral sur le site de la NASA.
The ghostly features in Saturn's B ring called spokes are making an appearance again as the Cassini spacecraft continues its tour of the Saturn system.
These dusty features on the rings are often wedge-shaped, as this one is, with the inner portions of the spoke being wider than the outer portions due to electromagnetic effects on the dust particles.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 26, 2008 at a distance of approximately 922,000 kilometers (573,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 39 degrees. Image scale is 52 kilometers (32 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10550: Dusty Wedge sur le site de la NASA.
The sharp change in brightness that runs diagonally across the center of this image represents the boundary between Saturn's C and B rings.
This location sits at about 92,000 kilometers (57,200 miles) from Saturn.
The B ring (at lower left) appears darker than the C ring from this perspective, above the unilluminated side of the rings, because the more densely populated B ring strongly attenuates sunlight passing through it.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 7, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (888,000 miles) from Saturn, and from about 32 degrees above the ringplane. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09901: On the Border sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's sunlit rings gleam in the blackness as two icy moons cruise past in the foreground.
Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) is a small crescent near upper left; Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is a speck above the F ring, near center. Janus was brightened slightly for visibility.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 5 degrees below the ringplane.
This image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 7, 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 139 degrees. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 63 kilometers (39 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Ever-changing kinks and wiggles define Saturn's dynamic F ring. The evolution of F-ring features like those seen here are of interest to ring scientists because they reveal a great deal about the processes shaping the ring's structure.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 4 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 15, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (821,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 16 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09888: F Ring Informants sur le site de la NASA.
Three of Saturn's moons appear almost like a string of pearls in this Cassini image, but looks are deceiving.
Moons visible in this image: Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) at right, Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) near center and Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) in the lower left corner. Mimas' orbit inclination of 1.6 degrees relative to Saturn's equator is enough to make it appear as if it orbits just beyond the F ring when viewed from this vantage point of 5 degrees below the rings. In fact, it is 34,000 kilometers (21,000 miles) more distant than Janus.
Contrast in the image was enhanced to make visible the faces of moons lit by reflected light from Saturn (their left sides). Notable here is the irregular shape of Janus, compared with larger, spherical Mimas. The bright B ring (at upper left) appears overexposed due to the extreme contrast enhancement.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 22, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
A collection of new ring phenomena, first observed in the sequence of images taken of the dark side of Saturn's rings immediately after Cassini entered orbit, may be evidence of the clumping and aggregation of ring particles. This phenomena is caused by the combined gravitational effects of Saturn, orbiting moons, and other ring particles.
Image A displays an unusual mottled-looking narrow region, with a radial width varying with longitude from 5 to 10 kilometers (3 to 6 miles), seen for the first time about 60 kilometers (37 miles) inside the outer edge of Saturn's A ring. The resolution of this dayside image is about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) per pixel. Image B is a close-up of the region, mapped into a longitude-radius system and contrast enhanced. The region is characterized by blotchy light and dark areas about 30 to 40 kilometers (19 to 25 miles) in longitudinal extent. The observed longitudinal extent of this region is about 3.5 degrees.
The mottled regions also are probably caused by particle clumping brought about by gravitational disturbances. The outer A ring edge is sculpted into a seven-lobed pattern called a Lindblad resonance (a type of dynamical resonance that occurs in rings systems) with the co-orbital satellites Janus and Epimetheus. The resonant perturbations in this region are complicated by the presence of these two moons whose orbits are within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of each other.
Image C is a dark-side image of the outer edge of the Encke gap, with a resolution of about 270 meters (886 feet) pixel, taken 18 degrees upstream from the moon Pan, which inhabits the gap. The regularly spaced, narrow dark lanes observed here are the wakes caused by Pan. Rope-like features can be seen between the first two wakes nearest the gap edge. These features are unique in all Cassini images taken so far. They generally are between 10 and 20 kilometers (6 and 12 miles) long.
In their orbits around Saturn, the particles comprising the rings in this region pass through the Pan wakes. When they do so, they are forced closer together than usual. These ropy features appear to be a product of the enhanced gravitational disturbances that occur when the particles pass through the wakes caused by Pan and consequently are squeezed close together. These disturbances obviously persist even outside the wakes, as is evident here in the presence of the ropy structures in the bands in between the wakes.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
This fortunate view sights along Saturn's ringplane to capture three moons aligned in a row: Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) at left, Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) at center and Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) at right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 2, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 19 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel on Dione, and about 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel on Prometheus and Epimetheus.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Zigzagging kinks and knots dance around Saturn in this movie of the F ring from Cassini. From a great distance, as during Cassini's initial approach to Saturn in mid-2004, the F ring appears as a faint, knotted strand of material at the outer fringe of Saturn's immense ring system. From this close vantage point, just after the spacecraft rounded the planet to begin its second orbit, the F ring resolves into several ringlets with a bright central core. The core of the F ring is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) wide and is located at a distance of approximately 80,100 kilometers (49,800 miles) from Saturn's cloud tops.
Scientists have only a rough idea of the lifetime of features like knots and clumps in Saturn's rings, and studies of images, such as those comprising this movie, will help them piece together this story.
The view here is from Cassini's southern vantage point, below the ringplane. During the course of the movie sequence, Cassini was headed on a trajectory that took the spacecraft away from the planet and farther south, so that the rings appear to tilt farther upward. To help visualize this, note that the top portion of the F ring is closer to the spacecraft, while the bottom portion is farther away and curves around the far side of Saturn.The movie consists of 44 frames taken three minutes apart, so that the span of time represented in the sequence is almost exactly two hours, or about one-eight of a Saturn rotation. The images that comprise this movie sequence were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 28, 2004, and at distances ranging from approximately 516,000 kilometers (321,000 miles) to 562,000 kilometers (349,000 miles). No enhancement was performed on the images.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Enceladus blasts its icy spray into space in this unlit-side ring view that also features a tiny sliver of Rhea.
The south polar region of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) peeks out from beneath the rings to the right of Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.9 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Enceladus and 4.6 million kilometers (2.9 million miles) from Rhea. The Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle is 161 degrees. Image scale is 23 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel on Enceladus.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's complex rings are both an intriguing scientific puzzle and a supreme natural wonder. This view shows, from upper right to lower left, the thin C ring, multi-toned B ring, the dark Cassini Division, the A ring and narrow F ring.
At the bottom, Saturn's moon Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) orbits about 45,000 kilometers (28,000 miles) beyond the bright core of the F ring. The little moon is heavily cratered and is thought to be largely composed of water ice. The bright speck just outside of (below) the F ring is the shepherd moon Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 19, 2005, at a distance of 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel. Pandora was brightened by a factor of seven to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's brilliant rings are accompanied here by a pack of small moons.
Visible in this view, from lower left to center right are Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across), Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across), Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) and Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across). The narrow F ring lies between the latter two, which are its "shepherd moons."
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 14 degrees above the ringplane. The planet's night side is visible through the rings at left. Saturn's shadow stretches across the ringplane above center.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 29, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 108 kilometers (67 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn sits with its attendants in the icy depths of the outer Solar System.
Near the edge-on rings, moons visible from left to right: Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across), Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) and Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across). The ring shadow forms a headband crowning Saturn's northern hemisphere.
The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 8, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 4.1 million kilometers (2.6 million miles) from Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft examines the Maxwell Gap—the large, dark division at center—which is surrounded on either side by the broad, isolated and bright ring regions, or "plateaus," of Saturn's outer C ring.
See PIA08389 for a labeled Cassini map of the rings.
The gap is named for James Clerk Maxwell, the famous Scottish physicist who showed that Saturn's rings must consist of countless individual particles, rather than solid, concentric ringlets.
Prometheus (102 kilometers, 63 miles across) wanders past at the bottom of this scene, which looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 2 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 29, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (697,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale at the center of the scene is about 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09857: Maxwell's Namesake sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's B and C rings disappear behind the immense planet. Where they meet the limb, the rings appear to bend slightly owing to upper-atmospheric refraction.
Crenulations --irregularly wavy or serrated features -- in the planet's clouds denote the locations of turbulent belt/zone boundaries.
The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 728 nanometers. The view was obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 16, 2006 at a distance of approximately 256,000 kilometers (159,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's rings throw imposing shadows and relegate parts of the planet's northern regions to darkness. Three thin and bright arcs in this scene represent three well-known gaps in the immense ring system. From bottom to top here (and widest to thinnest) they are the Cassini Division, the Encke Gap and the Keeler Gap.
The image was taken in infrared light (752 nanometers) using the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 29, 2005, at a distance of approximately 446,000 kilometers (277,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 23 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel. The image was contrast enhanced to improve visibility of features in the atmosphere.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.Our robotic explorer Cassini regards the shadow-draped face of Saturn.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 14 degrees above the ringplane. In this viewing geometry all of the main rings, except for the B ring, appear transparent. The rings cast their mirror image onto the planet beyond.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 9, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (972,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 90 kilometers (56 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The striated appearance of the F ring is immediately apparent in the region of the ring that trails behind the moon Prometheus. The F ring is characterized here by dark gores that stretch inward toward the planet and forward in the direction of motion.
This image has been expanded in the horizontal direction by a factor of five in order to make radial variations more prominent. The curvature of the rings is also exaggerated by the horizontal stretch.
The exterior flanking ringlets (to the right of the bright ring core) are not disturbed by Prometheus to the great degree seen in the inner ringlets.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 31 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Scale in the original image is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Broad, dark spokes in the B ring are clearly seen in this image of Saturn's rings.
The spokes are finally becoming quite common, as they were during the Voyager flybys. These observations and others like it seem to support the idea that the spokes become most prominent near equinox.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 19, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.011 million kilometers (628,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 29 degrees. Image scale is 57 kilometers (35 miles) per pixel.
Also visible in this image is the moon Janus off beyond the rings.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10525: Spokes in the Morning sur le site de la NASA.
The searing arc of light seen here is Saturn's icy F ring, seen nearly edge-on. In the background, Rhea (1,528 kilometers, 949 miles across) is lit by reflected light from Saturn and the rings, with only the slightest sliver of light at its bottom being from direct sunlight.
The faint material surrounding the F ring likely lies in the planet's equatorial plane, extending radially farther out and in from the main F ring core. A smaller fraction of this material could be vertically extended, and Cassini's investigations should help to clarify this.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 30, 2005, at a distance of approximately 689,000 kilometers (428,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is approximately 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.The Encke and Keeler gaps are visible in this image of the outer A ring. Brightness variations are clearly visible in the Encke ringlet.
A density wave can be seen exterior to (to the left of) the Encke gap, and the region exterior to (to the left of) the Keeler gap is considerably brighter than the rest of the ring.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 23, 2008 at a distance of approximately 721,000 kilometers (448,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 58 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10522: Fingerprints of the Moons sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn and Dione regard Enceladus—the object their gravitational tug-of-war. Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is seen next to Saturn here. Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) appears at left.
The interplay of gravitational forces on Enceladus from both Saturn and Dione might provide a key source of energy for the geological activity in the small moon's south polar region. What powers the activity on Enceladus is an ongoing subject of interest to Cassini scientists.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 3 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 8, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 727 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.9 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 169 kilometers (105 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09798: Key Players sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft peers through the gossamer strands of Saturn's innermost rings, whose own shadows adorn the planet beyond.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 35 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 21, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 620,000 kilometers (385,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 67 kilometers (42 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09908: Northward Through the Rings sur le site de la NASA.
The nearest star system, the trinary star Alpha Centauri, hangs above the horizon of Saturn. Both Alpha Centauri A and B—stars very similar to our own—are clearly distinguishable in this image. (The third star in the Alpha Centauri system, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, is not visible here.)
From the orbit of Saturn, light (as well as Cassini's radio signal) takes a little more than an hour travel to Earth. The distance to Alpha Centauri is so great that light from these stars takes more than four years to reach our Solar System. Thus, although Saturn seems a distant frontier, the nearest star is almost 30,000 times farther away.
This image is part of a stellar occultation sequence, during which Cassini watches as a star (or stars) as it passes behind Saturn. Light from the stars is attenuated by the uppermost reaches of Saturn's gaseous envelope, revealing information about the structure and composition of the planet's atmosphere.
The view was captured from about 66 degrees above the ringplane and faces southward on Saturn. Ring shadows mask the planet's northern latitudes at bottom.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 17, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 534,000 kilometers (332,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale on Saturn is about 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10406: Stellar Horizon sur le site de la NASA.
Epimetheus floats in the distance below center, showing only the barest hint of its irregular shape. Pandora hides herself in the ringplane, near upper right, appearing as little more than a bump.
This view is from just above the ringplane and shows features on the unlit side of Saturn's rings.
Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) hug the outer reaches of Saturn's main rings. Pandora orbits just outside the F ring, and Epimetheus jockeys for position with Janus, 10,000 kilometers beyond. Janus and Epimetheus recently swapped positions, and Janus will remain the innermost of the pair until 2010, when they will swap positions again.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 29, 2006, at a distance of approximately 3.3 million kilometers (2 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel at the distance of Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cool and icy Dione floats in front of giant Saturn bedecked in a dazzling array of colors.
The surface of Dione, which exhibits contrasting bright and dark areas when viewed up close, appears pale in this image. It is Saturn's multi-hued cloud bands that boldly steal the show. Discrete clouds and eddies in Saturn's northern hemisphere can be seen within the faint shadows of the rings on the planet. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.
Cassini is in a phase of its mission in which its orbit will be nearly equatorial for some time. This view was obtained from about one-third of a degree out of the ring plane.
Images taken with red, green and blue filters were used to create this natural-color view. The images were obtained with the wide-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2005, from a distance of approximately 803,000 kilometers (499,000 miles) from Dione and at a sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 43 degrees. The image scale is about 48 kilometers (30 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Prometheus zooms across the Cassini spacecraft's field of view, attended by faint streamers and deep gores in the F ring. This movie sequence of five images shows the F ring shepherd moon shaping the ring's inner edge.
Note that the faint ringlet coincident with the orbit of Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) decreases sharply in brightness behind the moon in its path. The normally twisted-looking F ring core is overexposed in the images, causing its appearance to be more uniform than it usually is.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Note: The size of the Full-Res TIFF for the still image is 609 samples x 301 lines.
Daphnis and its entourage of edge waves are captured here by the Cassini spacecraft.
The wave pattern caused by Daphnis in the edges of the Keeler Gap can be likened to a standing ripple in a flowing stream—the ripple, perhaps caused by a submerged stone, persists even though water particles are moving through it and onward downstream. Often, just downstream of the initial ripple, there are subsequent smaller waves as the water particles bob up and down before settling once more into smooth flow downstream.
Relating this analogy to the Keeler Gap edge waves, Daphnis is the stone causing the ripple -- delivering an initial gravitational kick to particles as they slowly pass by.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 45 degrees below the ringplane. Daphnis is 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 28, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 370,000 kilometers (230,000 miles) from Daphnis and at a Sun-Daphnis-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 95 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09850: Among the Waves sur le site de la NASA.
This group of spokes in Saturn's B ring extends over more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) radially across the ringplane.
The bright wedge to the left of center has a trailing edge (its top right edge) which is nearly radial and a leading edge which is sheared by about 30 degrees (forming a "Y" shape). The rest of the spokes also seem to be sheared by the same amount on both edges.
Scientists believe that spokes are essentially radial when they form. From this amount of shear, ring scientists deduce that the spokes in this group probably were all created at about the same time. Combining the amount of the spokes' shear with their radial distance from Saturn provides an approximate time when the features were created -- about 100 minutes before this image was taken.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 47 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 7, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 145 degrees. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Click on the image for movie of
Clumpy Moons
This is a computer simulation of the final stage of the growth of a "clump" in Saturn's rings. The gravity from a hypothesized moonlet (solid gray sphere in frame center) has collected smaller ring particles (black) to form a temporary aggregation. The particles shown in the simulation are from centimeters to meters (inches to yards) across. The gray moonlet is 61 meters (200 feet) across.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph was designed and built at, and the team is based at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph team home page is at http://lasp.colorado.edu/cassini.
Voir l'image PIA10083: Clumpy Moons sur le site de la NASA.
Graceful giant Saturn poses with a few of the small worlds it holds close. From this viewpoint the Cassini spacecraft can see across the entirety of the planet's shadow on the rings, to where the ringplane emerges once again into sunlight.
Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) shines large and bright near the bottom of the scene. Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) sits outside the F ring, below center. Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) is a speck on the far side of the ringplane, immediately to the right of Saturn's limb. Most of the other bright specks near the rings are background stars.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 8 degrees above the ringplane. The image has been brightened to enhance the appearance of the small moons.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 2, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 918 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 131 kilometers (81 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Encke gap displays gentle waves in its inner and outer edges that are caused by gravitational tugs from the small moon Pan. These scalloped edges were captured in a dramatic image taken by Cassini during its insertion into Saturn orbit in 2004.
The Encke gap is a 325-kilometer (200-mile) wide division in Saturn's outer A ring. Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) orbits squarely in the center of this gap.
The original image was stretched in the horizontal direction by a factor of four to exaggerate the amplitude of the waves, then reduced to half size and cropped to focus on the gap.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 290,000 kilometers (180,000 miles) from Saturn. Scale in the original image was 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
From on high, the Cassini spacecraft spies a group of three ring moons in their travels around Saturn.
Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is seen at top, while Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) hugs the outer edge of the narrow F ring. More difficult to spot is Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across), which is a mere speck in this view. Pan can be seen in the Encke Gap, near center left. (See PIA08389 for a labeled Cassini map of the rings.)
The speck seen between the A and F rings at left is a background star.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 40 degrees above the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view.
Bright clumps of material in the narrow F ring moved in their orbits between each of the color exposures, creating a chromatic misalignment that provides some sense of the continuous motion in the ring system.
The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 7, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale at the center of the view is 74 kilometers (46 miles) per pixel in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09865: Grandeur of the Rings sur le site de la NASA.
The A and F rings are alive with moving structures in this Cassini spacecraft view. Graceful drapes of ring material created by Prometheus are seen sliding by at left, while clumpy ringlets slip through the Encke Gap.
Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) is all but invisible to the right of the lowest streamer seen here.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 12 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 7, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 163 degrees. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
With Saturn's terminator as a backdrop, this view of the unlit face of the rings makes it easy to distinguish between areas that are actual gaps, where light passes through essentially unimpeded, and areas where the rings block or scatter light. The gaps are regions in which the brightness varies strongly from left to right as the background goes from bright to dark.
Parts of the image are saturated at left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 24, 2006 at a distance of approximately 577,000 kilometers (359,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 101 degrees. Image scale is 31 kilometers (19 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The effects of three of Saturn's ring moons can be spotted in this single narrow-angle camera view.
The image has been strongly enhanced to better show the wakes on both sides of the Encke Gap caused by Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across, left of center), as well as a hint of the edge waves in the narrow Keeler Gap caused by Daphnis (7 kilometers, 4.3 miles across, below center).
Bright Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across, at right) pulls away from its latest close encounter with the F ring. The aftereffects of its recent passes are visible in the ring's inner edge.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 10 degrees above the ringplane. Saturn's shadow cuts across the rings at the top of the scene.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 5, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Pan. Image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This collection of Cassini images provides context for understanding the location and scale of propeller-shaped features observed within Saturn's A ring.
Careful analysis of the highest resolution images taken by Cassini's cameras as the spacecraft slipped into Saturn orbit revealed the four faint, propeller-shaped double-streaks in an otherwise bland part of the mid-A ring. Imaging scientists believe the "propellers" provide the first direct observation of the dynamical effects of moonlets approximately 100 meters (300 feet) in diameter. The propeller moonlets represent a hitherto unseen size-class of particles orbiting within the rings.
The left-hand panel provides broad context within the rings, and shows the B ring, Cassini Division, A ring and F ring. Image scale in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction is about 45 kilometers (28 miles) per pixel; because the rings are viewed at an angle, the image scale in the longitudinal, or circumferential, direction is several times greater.
The center image is a closer view of the A ring, showing the radial locations where propeller features were spotted. The view is approximately 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) across from top to bottom and includes a large density wave at bottom (caused by the moons Janus and Epimetheus), as well as two smaller density waves. The footprints of the propeller discovery images are between density waves, in bland, quiescent regions of the ring.
The propellers appear as double dashes in the two close-up discovery images at the right and are circled. The unseen moonlets, each roughly the size of a football field, lie in the center of each structure. These two images were taken during Saturn orbit insertion on July 1, 2004, and are presented here at one-half scale. Resolution in the original images was 52 meters (171 feet) per pixel. The horizontal lines in the image represent electronic noise and do not correspond to ring features.
The propellers are about 5 kilometers (3 miles) long from tip to tip, and the radial offset (the "leading" dash is slightly closer to Saturn) is about 300 meters (1,000 feet).
The propeller structures are unchanged as they orbit the planet. In that way, they are much like the wave pattern that trails after a speedboat as it skims across a smooth lake. Such a pattern is hard to discern in a choppy sea. In much the same way, scientists think other effects may be preventing Cassini from seeing the propellers except in very bland parts of the rings.
See PIA07790 and PIA07791 for additional images showing these features.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks up from beneath the ringplane to spy Atlas hugging the outer edge of the A ring, above center.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 23, 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across). The image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Atlas.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks through the dense B ring toward a distant star in an image from a recent stellar occultation observation. These observations point the camera toward a star whose brightness is well known. Then, as Cassini watches the rings pass in front, the star's light fluctuates, providing information about the concentrations of ring particles within the various radial features in the rings.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 35 degrees above the ringplane. The star's image is partly saturated, causing the vertical lines that extend up and down.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 26, 2006 at a distance of approximately 543,000 kilometers (338,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 106 degrees. Image scale is about 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A train of diagonal channels in Saturn's F ring follows behind the moon Prometheus. Each of these features was created during a previous close approach of Prometheus to the ring.
When the moon is at the farthest point in its orbit of the planet, it strays close to (and often into) the F ring. The resulting gravitational disturbance leaves behind the channels seen here.
Atlas (30 kilometers, or 19 miles across at its widest point) appears at lower right.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 27 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 5, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (675,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 34 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10448: F Ring Channels sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft captures Saturn's main rings in a study of light and dark.
A bright knot is visible in the F ring near upper left. Ring scientists think features like this can be created when a small moonlet collides with the ring's core, leading to collisions that scatter fine, icy particles (see PIA08290).
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 16 degrees above the ringplane. The edge of Saturn's shadow forms a dark wedge on the rings at right.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (743,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 27 degrees. Image scale is 68 kilometers (42 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10499: The Unlit Face sur le site de la NASA.
Tethys floats before the massive, golden-hued globe of Saturn in this natural color view. The thin, dark line of the rings curves around the horizon at top.
Visible on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) are the craters Odysseus (top) and Melanthius (bottom). The view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Tethys.Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this color view. Tethys is apparently darker than Saturn at these wavelengths. The edge of the planet appears fuzzy, which may indicate that we are seeing haze layers that are separated from the main cloud deck. The images were acquired by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 3, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Saturn and 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Tethys.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The rings are awash in subtle tones of gold and cream in this view which shows the outer B ring, the Cassini Division and the inner part of the A ring.
In this viewing geometry, the brightest feature in the Cassini Division is the recently discovered diffuse ringlet near the outer edge of the Division (see also PIA08330). The diffuse ringlet has a distinctive bluish cast.
The color of the rings appears more golden than earlier in the mission because of the viewing geometry here -- increased scattering in the rings is brought about by the high phase angle and the view being toward the rings' unlit side.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 30 degrees above the ringplane.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 29, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.829 million kilometers (1.137 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Outside the soft edge of Cassini's F ring, Epimetheus and Janus negotiate their nearly-shared orbit. The two moons' orbits are typically about 50 kilometers (30 miles) apart, and the moons actually change orbits every few years: one moon becoming the innermost of the pair, the other becoming the outermost.
Epimetheus' diameter is 116 kilometers (72 miles). Janus' diameter is 181 kilometers (113 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on the two moons.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's icy rings shine in scattered sunlight in this view, which looks toward the unilluminated northern side of the rings from about 15 degrees above the ringplane.
The Sun currently illuminates the rings from the south. Some of the sunlight not reflected from the rings' southern face is scattered through the countless particles, setting the rings aglow.
The inner F-ring shepherd moon Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across at its widest point) appears at lower left.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. Bright clumps of material in the narrow F ring moved in their orbits between each of the color exposures, creating a chromatic misalignment in several places that provides some sense of the continuous motion within the ring system.
The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 4, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (770,000 miles) from Saturn. The Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle was 28 degrees. Image scale is 70 kilometers (44 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10446: Scattered Sunshine sur le site de la NASA.
Four minutes after Cassini captured dark Mimas and softly-lit Enceladus (see PIA08220) near the ringplane, Mimas had slipped into near-obscurity against Saturn's dark side.
Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is still visible as a dark spot just right of the planet's limb, leaving Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) to bask in the ghostly light of Saturn.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.9 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Mimas, 4.3 kilometers (2.7 miles) from Enceladus, and 4.1 million kilometers (2.6 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 25 kilometers (16 miles) per pixel on Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
After much anticipation, Cassini has finally spotted the elusive spokes in Saturn's rings.
Spokes are the ghostly radial markings discovered in the rings by NASA's Voyager spacecraft 25 years ago. Since that time, spokes had been seen in images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope but had not, until now, been seen by Cassini.These three images, taken over a span of 27 minutes, show a few faint, narrow spokes in the outer B ring. The spokes are about 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) long and about 100 kilometers-wide (60 miles). The motion of the spokes here is from left to right. They are seen just prior to disappearing into the planet's shadow on the rings.
At the bottom left corner of the left and center images, the bright inner edge of the A ring is visible. Continuing radially inward (or toward Saturn) are several bands that lie within the Cassini Division, bounded by the bright outer edge of the B ring. The rounded shadow of Saturn cuts across the rings in the image at right.
Cassini's first sighting of spokes occurs on the unilluminated side of the rings, in the same region in which they were seen during the Voyager flybys. Although the most familiar Voyager images of spokes showed them on the sunlit side of the rings, spokes also were seen on the unilluminated side.
In Voyager images, when spokes were seen at low phase angles, they appeared dark; when seen at high phase angles, they appeared bright. The spokes seen here are viewed by Cassini at a very high phase angle, which is about 145 degrees at the center of each image.
Imaging team members will be studying the new spoke images and will maintain their vigil for additional spoke sightings.
These images were taken using the clear filters on Cassini's wide-angle camera on Sept. 5, 2005, at a mean distance of 318,000 kilometers (198,000 miles) from Saturn. The radial scale on the rings (the image scale at the center of each image) is about 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's ring-embedded moons, Pan and Daphnis, are captured in a single Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle frame in an alignment they repeat with the regularity of a precise cosmic clock. Pan is closer to Saturn, and thus orbits faster, and Pan overtakes Daphnis every 19 days.
The flying-saucer-like shape of Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) can easily be discerned here. Daphnis (7 kilometers, or 4.3 miles across) is a mere speck, although its presence is made obvious by the edge waves it creates in the surrounding ring material.
Pan also raises waves in the edges of the Encke Gap (see PIA06099). However, even though Pan is more massive than Daphnis, Pan is farther from the edges of its gap than the smaller moon. This causes Pan's edge waves to have a much longer wavelength (they are more stretched out) and a smaller amplitude (they do not extend as far inward from the gap edge) as those created by Daphnis, making them more difficult to see.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 24 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 24, 2007 at a distance of approximately 889,000 kilometers (553,000 miles) from Daphnis and at a Sun-Daphnis-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 21 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
From just outside the faint edge of Saturn's F ring, the moon Pandora keeps watch over her fine-grained flock. The outer flanks of the F ring region are populated by ice particles approaching the size of the particles comprising smoke. As a shepherd moon, Pandora helps her cohort Prometheus confine and shape the main F ring. Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.
Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) wide and orbits interior to the F ring.
The small knot seen attached to the core is one of several that Cassini scientists are eyeing as they attempt to distinguish embedded moons from transient clumps of material (see PIA07716).
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 2, 2005, using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers at a distance of approximately 610,000 kilometers (379,000 miles) from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 146 degrees. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's rings sweep around the planet, throwing their dark shadows onto the northern hemisphere.
The equatorial region is generally brighter than the rest of the planet in Cassini spacecraft views, but the contrast is often striking in monochrome views like this, taken in the infrared part of the spectrum at wavelengths sensitive to methane absorption in the planet's atmosphere. (Compare, for example, PIA08392 and PIA07669.)
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 24 degrees above the ringplane.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09817: Contrast Across the Shadows sur le site de la NASA.
Two ring moons chase each other as their larger sibling looks on. This view shows Tethys at lower left, along with perpetually mingling Epimetheus at left of center, and Janus at center.
Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across; Epimetheus is 116 kilometers (72 miles) across; and Janus is 181 kilometers (113 miles) across.
In the background, the faint G ring and brilliant F ring bound the location where Cassini entered Saturn orbit. The spacecraft passed between these two rings upon arrival in mid-2004.
Near the right side of the image, a couple of ringlets within the Encke gap glow faintly.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 15, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.9 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Janus, 4 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Epimetheus, and 3.7 million kilometers (2.3 million miles) from Tethys. Image scale is 24 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel on Janus and Epimetheus and 22 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Three of Saturn's brood are captured near the rings in this view from the Cassini spacecraft. Together they showcase the rich variety of worlds found in the Saturn system.
Pictured here are: Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) at upper left, Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) at right and Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) just above the rings left of center.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane. The planet is overexposed in this view.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 24, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 183 kilometers (114 miles) per pixel on Titan, 132 kilometers (82 miles) per pixel on Dione and 115 kilometers (71 miles) per pixel at the distance of Janus.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's shadow cuts across the rings in this view from high above the ringplane. While in the shadow the ring particles cool off and then heat up again when they enter the sunlight.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 18, 2008 at a distance of approximately 749,000 kilometers (465,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 44 degrees. Image scale is 41 kilometers (26 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10519: Shadow of the Giant sur le site de la NASA.
Intriguing features resembling drapes and kinks are visible in this Cassini view of Saturn's thin F ring. Several distinct ringlets are present, in addition to the bright, knotted core of the ring.
The obvious structure in the ring and its strands has been caused by Prometheus, the inner F ring shepherd moon that recently swept past this region. (Prometheus is about 10 degrees ahead of the F ring material in this image). These types of features were first seen in images taken just after Cassini entered into orbit around Saturn. The gravitational interaction of Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) on the ring pulls material out the ring once every orbit (every 14.7 hours) as the moon gets close to the ring and its strands.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to polarized visible light. Resolution in the original image was 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel. The image was contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Shadow-striped Saturn and its exquisitely thin rings occupy the near-field view in this Cassini image, while a crescent moon Rhea hangs in the distance.
A couple of bright pixels at the center of the image mark the location of the tiny moon Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across).
As Saturn’s second-largest moon, Rhea is 1,528 kilometers wide (949 miles).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 3, 2006, at a distance of approximately 4.1 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Saturn and 4.6 million kilometers (2.9 million miles) from Rhea. The image scale is 28 kilometers (17 miles) per pixel on Rhea.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's rings are dark and elusive in this view from high above the ringplane, but their shadows on the planet give them away.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 37 degrees above the ringplane. The D, C, and B rings and the innermost A ring fill this view, although the rings are quite dark and difficult to see. Their structure is far clearer on the planet at right. Near upper right is a dot-like shadow, likely that of the small moon Janus.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 27, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (600,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 137 degrees. Image scale is 58 kilometers (36 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The clumpy disturbed appearance of the brilliant F ring constantly changes. The irregular structure of the ring is due, in large part, to the gravitational perturbations on the ring material by one of Saturn's moons, Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across).
Interior to the F ring, the A ring bears a striking resemblance to a classic grooved, vinyl record. Visible here are the Keeler gap (42 kilometers, or 26 miles wide) and the Encke gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide).
The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 862 nanometers. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 26, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 141 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A group of bright spokes tightly cluster together in Saturn's B ring. The spokes seen here generally all exhibit the same degree of shearing, or tilting, but some deviations are apparent. In this image, the direction to Saturn is downward; orbital motion is to the left.
Ring scientists are eager for data to help them understand and eventually explain how these mysterious ring features are created. To that end, Cassini has been directed to acquire movie sequences, like the one this image is part of, that watch for these elusive radial structures.
This observation focused on the morning side of the rings, the side where the rings are rotating out from Saturn's shadow. Spokes appear most frequently at this location.
Also barely visible in this image are broader, much fainter but still bright radial regions that extend over larger radial distances than the spokes in the upper left. Where these fainter features cross ringlets in the lower part of the image, slight variations in brightness are apparent. These are probably due to tiny particles, possibly part of a former spoke, that haven't yet settled down onto the ring plane.
Although their formation is still a subject of inquiry, scientists are confident that the microscopic spoke particles are slightly electrically charged and therefore are influenced by Saturn's magnetic field.
The brightness of the spokes, when combined with viewing geometry information and estimates of their particle sizes can help researchers determine the amount of material in the spokes--a crucial quantity to constrain theories of spoke formation.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 28, 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 147 degrees. Scale in the original image was about 32 kilometers (20 miles) per pixel. The view has been magnified by a factor of two.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A solitary clump-like feature in Saturn's F ring orbits past in this movie sequence made from Cassini images. This feature is seen magnified at the bottom right in PIA07716.
Scientists are trying to determine whether these features are solid moonlets that help control the ring or just loose clumps of particles within the ring.
The images in this sequence were acquired in visible light using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 13, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Cassini pierced the ring plane and rounded Saturn on Oct. 27, 2004, capturing this view of the dark portion of the rings. A portion of the planet's atmosphere is visible here, as is its shadow on the surface of the rings.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Oct. 27, 2004, at a distance of about 618,000 kilometers (384,000 miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 1001 nanometers. The image scale is 33 kilometers (21 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's incredible rings dwarf its moons in sheer scale. But all of their material, if compacted into a single body, would make a moon smaller than Enceladus, seen here next to the planet's banded globe.
Enceladus is 505 kilometers (314 miles) across; the rings would make a moon roughly the size of Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across, not pictured). Their thinness, just tens of meters (several feet) according to recent Cassini observations, is the key to their incredible scale.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 5 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 18, 2007, using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 728 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 49 degrees. Image scale is 201 kilometers (125 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Click on the partial image for full view of annotated version
A scan across Saturn's incredible halo of ice rings yields a study in precision and order.
This natural color mosaic was acquired by the Cassini spacecraft as it soared 39 degrees above the unilluminated side of the rings.
Major named gaps are labeled at the top. The main rings themselves, along with the F ring, are labeled at the bottom, along with their inner and outer boundaries.
This mosaic was constructed from narrow-angle camera images taken immediately after the wide-angle camera mosaic PIA08388. Radial features can be seen in the rings that are about ten times smaller than in the wide-angle view. This scan is rotated 180 degrees compared to PIA08388 in order to present the rings with distance from Saturn increasing left to right.
The view combines 45 images -- 15 separate sets of red, green and blue images -- taken over the course of about 2.5 hours, as Cassini scanned across the rings.
The images in this view were obtained on May 9, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale in the radial (horizontal) direction is about 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini's celestial sleuthing has paid off with this time-lapse series of images which confirmed earlier suspicions that a small moon was orbiting within the narrow Keeler gap of Saturn's rings.
The movie sequence, which consists of 12 images taken over 16 minutes while Cassini gazed down upon the sunlit side of the A ring, shows a tiny moon orbiting in the center of the Keeler gap, churning up waves in the gap edges as it goes. The pattern of waves travels with the moon in its orbit.
The Keeler gap is located about 250 kilometers (155 miles) inside the outer edge of the A ring, which is also the outer edge of the bright main rings. The new object is about 7 kilometers across (4 miles) and reflects about 50 percent of the sunlight that falls upon it -- a brightness that is typical of particles in the nearby rings.
The new body has been provisionally named S/2005 S1.
Imaging scientists predicted the moon's presence and its orbital distance from Saturn after July 2004, when they saw a set of peculiar spiky and wispy features in the Keeler gap's outer edge. The similarities of the Keeler gap features to those noted in Saturn's F ring and the Encke gap led the scientists to conclude that a small body, a few kilometers across, was lurking in the center of the Keeler gap, awaiting discovery.
Also included here is a view of the same scene created by combining six individual, unmagnified frames used in the movie sequence. This digital composite view improves the overall resolution of the scene compared to that available in any of the single images.
The images in this movie sequence were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (708,000 miles) from Saturn. Resolution in the original image was 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel. The images in the movie sequence have been magnified in (the vertical direction only) by a factor of two to aid visibility of features caused within the gap by the moonlet.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Click on the image for annotated version
The Cassini spacecraft captures eight new propeller-like features within Saturn's A ring in what may be the propeller "hot zone" of Saturn's rings.
Propeller features form around small moonlets that are not massive enough to clear out ring material, but are still able to pull smaller ring particles into a shape reminiscent of an airplane propeller. Scientists believe that propellers represent moonlet wakes, which are denser than the surrounding ring material and appear bright in the images.
Propellers were first discovered in Cassini images taken during Saturn orbit insertion in 2004. This new image is from a more extensive study of the full A ring and provides evidence that these features are not distributed evenly as previously thought, but are instead grouped in a 3,000 kilometer-wide (1,860 mile) propeller belt.
This image shows four new propellers and was put together from images in the Planetary Data System, a web site which archives and distributes scientific data from NASA planetary missions. The largest propeller seen here is noted in the white dashed box, and it indicates the presence of a 150-meter (490-foot) moonlet. The size is inferred from the radial separation of the propeller wings. The propeller is seen in another image and is shown in the upper left box. The reappearance of the propellers clearly demonstrates the orbital motion of the propellers. The region enclosed in the red box is zoomed and shown in the top panel of PIA10080. Three additional propellers are noted with white dashed circles on the right. Very bright and round spots are artifacts. But some of the bright elongated and non-saturated streaks could be smaller propellers that are not resolved in the image.
This view is made up of two images from a set of 26 images with a complete radial coverage of the A ring and part of the Cassini division taken during an occultation of the star Antares (alpha Scorpii; brightest spot on top) on Aug. 20, 2005.
In this clear filter image, the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera observed the unlit side of the rings, with a phase angle of 126 degrees. The images were taken at 1 minute intervals with 0.05 seconds exposure time. Image resolution is 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm.
Cassini's climb to progressively higher elevations reveals the "negative" side of Saturn's rings. As the Sun shines through the rings, they take on the appearance of a photonegative: the dense B ring (at the center) blocks much of the incoming light, while the less dense regions scatter and transmit light.
Close inspection reveals not one, but two moons in this scene. Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is easily visible near the upper right, but the shepherd moon Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) can also be seen. Prometheus is a dark spot against the far side of the thin, bright F ring. Most of Prometheus' sunlit side is turned away from Cassini in this view.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 15, 2005, at a distance of approximately 570,000 kilometers (350,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 30 kilometers (19 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft spots the irregularly shaped icy moon Janus as it swings around Saturn.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 8 degrees above the ringplane. Janus is 181 kilometers (113 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (994,000 miles) from Janus and at a Sun-Janus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 18 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09849: Janus in View sur le site de la NASA.
A recently discovered diffuse ringlet shines brightly in the Cassini Division as Mimas cruises past at bottom.
Most of the main rings are comprised of particles ranging from marble-size to house-size. In contrast, the brightness of this ringlet (seen right of center) when viewed at a high phase angle (the Sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle) indicates it contains a large quantity of microscopic particles, which were likely generated by the disruption of a larger body. Such an event was probably recent, since this ringlet was not observed by the Voyager spacecraft in 1980 and 1981.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 1 degree below the ringplane. Mimas, which is in the foreground between Cassini and the rings, is 397 kilometers (247 miles) wide. See PIA08330 and PIA08331 for other views of the new ringlet.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 18, 2006 and from a phase angle of 140 degrees. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The moons Dione and Tethys face each other across the gulf of Saturn's rings. Here, the Cassini spacecraft looks on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Tethys below and the anti-Saturn side of Dione above. The dark groove in the rings is the Cassini Division.
Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across, while Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across.
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2005, at a distance of approximately 860,000 kilometers (530,000 miles) from Dione. Tethys was on the far side of the rings, 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Cassini. The image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel on Dione and 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This montage of images from the NASA Cassini and Voyager missions shows that structural evolution has occurred in Saturn's D ring (the innermost ring) during the quarter century separating the two missions. The inset image reveals structure with an unprecedented level of fine detail.
The lower panel was taken in 1980 by Voyager 1 from a distance of about 250,000 kilometers (155,000 miles). The bright material at the lower left is the inner edge of the C-ring. Interior to this feature, we see three discrete ringlets. From right to left, these are called D73, D72 and D68, respectively.
The upper panel, obtained by Cassini from a distance of 272,000 kilometers (169,000 miles) on May 3, 2005, shows the same region from a similar viewing geometry. The green line marks the edge of the C-ring, which was not overexposed like the Voyager image. Image scale in this Cassini view is about 13 kilometers (8 miles).
There have been some very significant changes in the appearance of the D ring since observed by Voyager. The most dramatic changes involve D72, which was the brightest feature in the D-ring 25 years ago. Since then, D72 has decreased in brightness by more than an order of magnitude relative to the other ringlets. It also has moved inward about 200 kilometers (125 miles) relative to the other features in the D ring.
Cassini has also observed the D-ring at much higher resolution than was possible for Voyager, revealing surprising fine-scale structures. The inset narrow-angle camera image (upper right) was taken on May 21, 2005, in a very different geometry from the larger scale Cassini panel to its left. This close-up shows the region between D73 and the C-ring at 2 kilometer (1 mile) per pixel resolution. This region contains a periodic wave-like structure with a wavelength of 30 kilometers (19 miles). The faint vertical bands in the image are instrumental artifacts.
As for the significance of these findings, the time-variability of the rings over only decades can provide information about how the rings are maintained and confined, and how long they last.
The fine structure in the D-ring (visible in the inset) could be related to perturbations from the planet or its magnetic field. The Cassini results provide information about the dynamics of ring particles in a new regime -- one very close to the planet and sparsely populated by icy particles the size of dust.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Cassini has sighted Prometheus and Pandora, the two F-ring-shepherding moons whose unpredictable orbits both fascinate scientists and wreak havoc on the F ring.
Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) is visible left of center in the image, inside the F ring. Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) appears above center, outside the ring. The dark shadow cast by the planet stretches more than halfway across the A ring, the outermost main ring. The mottled pattern appearing in the dark regions of the image is 'noise' in the signal recorded by the camera system, which has subsequently been magnified by the image processing.
The F ring is a narrow, ribbon-like structure, with a width seen in this geometry equivalent to a few kilometers. The two small, irregularly shaped moons exert a gravitational influence on particles that make up the F ring, confining it and possibly leading to the formation of clumps, strands and other structures observed there. Pandora prevents the F ring from spreading outward and Prometheus prevents it from spreading inward. However, their interaction with the ring is complex and not fully understood. The shepherds are also known to be responsible for many of the observed structures in Saturn's A ring.
The moons, which were discovered in images returned by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1980, are in chaotic orbits--their orbits can change unpredictably when the moons get very close to each other. This strange behavior was first noticed in ground-based and Hubble Space Telescope observations in 1995, when the rings were seen nearly edge-on from Earth and the usual glare of the rings was reduced, making the satellites more readily visible than usual. The positions of both satellites at that time were different than expected based on Voyager data.
One of the goals for the Cassini-Huygens mission is to derive more precise orbits for Prometheus and Pandora. Seeing how their orbits change over the duration of the mission will help to determine their masses, which in turn will help constrain models of their interiors and provide a more complete understanding of their effect on the rings.
This narrow angle camera image was snapped through the broadband green spectral filter, centered at 568 nanometers, on March 10, 2004, when the spacecraft was 55.5 million kilometers (34.5 million miles) from the planet. Image scale is approximately 333 kilometers (207 miles) per pixel. Contrast has been greatly enhanced, and the image has been magnified to aid visibility of the moons as well as structure in the rings.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
This close-up of the lit side of Saturn's outer B ring and the Cassini Division looks something like a phonograph record. There are subtle, wavelike patterns, hundreds of narrow features resembling a record's 'grooves' and a noticeable abrupt change in overall brightness beyond the dark gap near the right. To the left of the gap is the outer B ring with its sharp edge maintained by a strong gravitational resonance with the moon Mimas. To the right of the Huygens Gap are the plateau-like bands of the Cassini Division. The narrow ringlet within the gap is called the Huygens ringlet.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 29, 2004, at a distance of about 819,000 (509,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Bright strands in Saturn's ever changing F ring emerge from the planet's shadow.
Several background stars are visible by the trails they created while the image was being exposed.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 59 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 9, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft captures Janus in the foreground, with Dione in the distance beyond.
The image was taken two hours after PIA09842, in which Cassini imaged Dione beyond the rings.
Janus is 181 kilometers (113 miles) across. Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across. North on the moons is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 17, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (766,000 miles) from Janus and 1.6 million kilometers (970,000 miles) from Dione. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Janus and 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel on Dione.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 20, 2008 using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light centered at 938 and 746 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 58 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel. Due to scattering of light by Titan's hazy atmosphere, the sizes of surface features that can be resolved are a few times larger than the actual pixel scale.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09847: Stepping Stone to Dione sur le site de la NASA.
This wide and sweeping view of the sunlit rings of Saturn takes in the impressive variety in their structure -- from the clumpy and perennially intriguing F ring to the many waves, ringlets and gaps in the A and B rings and the Cassini Division in between.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 640,000 kilometers (397,000 miles) from Saturn. The view was acquired from about 10 degrees below the ringplane. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 35 kilometers (22 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Dramatic edge-on Cassini views of Saturn's E ring, like these side-by-side images, reveal for the first time a double-banded structure. The structure is similar to that of Jupiter's gossamer ring and to the bands of dust found within the solar system's asteroid belt. Scientists believe that the E ring particles have their origins in the geysers erupting from the south polar of Enceladus.
The double-banded appearance exists because there are fewer particles close to the ring plane than 500 to 1,000 kilometers (300 to 600 miles) above and below. This circumstance can arise if the particles making up the ring encircle Saturn on inclined orbits with a very restricted range of inclinations.
This special condition might exist for two reasons. One possibility is that the particles being jetted out of Enceladus and injected into Saturn orbit may begin their journey around Saturn with a certain velocity, and consequently a restricted range of inclinations, with respect to the ring plane. Another is that the particles may begin with a large range of inclinations, but those orbiting very close to the ring plane get gravitationally scattered and removed from that region by the passage of Enceladus.
Scientists will continue to observe the E ring from various angles to confirm and understand the structure.
Most of the bright specks in the images are background stars, although a few are cosmic ray hits on the camera's detector.
The two images were taken five hours apart on Dec. 1, 2005, when Cassini was approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is about 220 kilometers (137 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA07803: Double-Banded E Ring sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's semitransparent rings arc smoothly around the gas giant, abruptly disappearing where they pass through the planet's shadow.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 15, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 728 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (907,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 84 kilometers (52 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09896: Dark Boundary sur le site de la NASA.
Both luminous and translucent, the C ring sweeps out of the darkness of Saturn's shadow and obscures the planet at lower left. The ring is characterized by broad, isolated bright areas, or "plateaus," surrounded by fainter material.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 19 degrees above the ringplane. North on Saturn is up. The dark, inner B ring is seen at lower right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 15, 2006 at a distance of approximately 632,000 kilometers (393,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 56 degrees. Image scale is 34 kilometers (21 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini's cameras were retargeted to capture the tiny Keeler Gap moon S/2005 S1, visible at the center and first discovered by Cassini a few months ago. Waves raised in the gap edges by the Keeler moonlet's gravity are clearly visible here. Scientists can use the height of the waves to determine the little moon's mass.
The Keeler moon is 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) across and orbits within its 42-kilometer (26-mile) wide gap. The much larger Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide) is seen here at the upper right, minus its embedded moonlet, Pan. Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) was discovered in images from NASA's Voyager spacecraft.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 853,000 kilometers (530,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of three to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The restless winds on gas giant Saturn meet no resistance from any landmass. The boundaries between eastward- and westward-flowing jet streams create turbulent, eddy-filled regions that pump energy into the never-ending gales (see PIA08384).
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 18, 2007, using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 727 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 20 kilometers (13 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Prometheus shows up bright in this image of the dark side of the rings.
The bright band that appears above Prometheus in this image is the Cassini division separating the (very dark) B ring and the A ring. The C ring, interior to the B ring, is clearly visible.
10532The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 20, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.076 million kilometers (668,000 miles) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 26 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10532: Prometheus Lurking in the Rings sur le site de la NASA.
Turbulent swirls churn in Saturn's atmosphere while the planet's rings form a dazzling backdrop. The rings' complex structure is clearly evident in this view.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 15, 2005, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 727 nanometers at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 72 degrees. The image scale is 28 kilometers (17 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
This ringscape shows the outermost part of the rings' spoke-forming region, the other edge of the B ring, and the regular bands of material within the Cassini Division. Spokes are only seen in Saturn's B ring, interior to the Cassini Division.
Several very faint spokes are visible at left, above center. Also on the left half of the image are variations in brightness along the direction of particle motion, a commonly seen feature in the spoke-forming region.
The Cassini Division is the region to the right of the brightest ringlet in the image. This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 20 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Click on the image for the movie
The Great Crossing
This life-like movie sequence captures Saturn's rings during a ring plane crossing -- which Cassini makes twice per orbit -- from the spacecraft's point of view. The movie begins with a view of the sunlit side of the rings. As the spacecraft speeds from south to north, the rings appear to tilt downward and collapse to a thin plane, and then open again to reveal the un-illuminated side of the ring plane, where sunlight filters through only dimly.
The striking contrast between the sunlit and unlit sides of the ring plane can now be fully appreciated, thanks to the sense of continuity in time and space provided by this brief clip.
The movie consists of 34 images taken over the course of 12 hours as Cassini pierced the ring plane. Additional frames were inserted between the original images in order to smooth the motion in the sequence -- a scheme called interpolation.
Six moons careen through the field of view during the sequence. The first large one is Enceladus, whose slanted motion from the upper left to center right nicely illustrates the inclination of its orbit with respect to the rings. The second large one, seen in the second half of the movie, is Mimas, going from right to left.
This movie begins with a view looking toward the lit side of the rings from about 9 degrees below the ring plane. It ends when the spacecraft is 8 degrees above the ring plane.
The clear-filter images in this movie sequence were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 17, 2007, at a distance of approximately 900,000 kilometers (500,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 48 kilometers (30 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This fantastic close-up of Saturn's outer C ring shows large and sharp changes in brightness across the rings, owing to the extreme variations in ring particle concentrations at different distances from the planet. The dark gap running through the center contains the Maxwell ringlet, as well as a faint, narrow ringlet discovered in Cassini images. Another very dark region to the right of the Maxwell gap is also a narrow gap.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 29, 2004, at a distance of about 836,000 kilometers (519,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 4.6 kilometers (2.9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The three very different moons seen here provide targets of great interest for planetary scientists studying the Saturn system. Captured here by Cassini, along with the rings, are Tethys at upper right, Enceladus below center and Janus at lower left.
Researchers study the orbital dance of Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) with Epimetheus, tectonics and cratering on Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) and geyser activity on Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across). And these are only a few of the wonders that await exploration in the realm of the ringed planet.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 16, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Tethys, 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Enceladus and 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Janus. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Tethys, 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Enceladus and 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Epimetheus.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This four-picture sequence (spanning 30 minutes) shows one of four new moons discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope, in images taken of Saturn on May 22, 1995, when Saturn's rings were tilted edge-on to Earth.
Identified as S/1995 S3, the moon appears as an elongated white spot near the center of each image. The new moon lies just outside Saturn's outermost "F" ring and is no bigger than about 15 miles across. The brighter object to the left is the moon Epimetheus, which was discovered during the ring-plane crossing of 1966. Both moons change position from frame to frame because they are orbiting the planet.
Saturn appears as a bright white disk at far right, and the edge-on rings extend diagonally to the upper left. To the left of the vertical line, each image has been processed to remove residual light from the rings and accentuate any faint satellites orbiting near the rings. The long observing times necessary to detect the faint satellites have resulted in Saturn's bright, overexposed appearance.
Saturn ring plane crossings happen only once every 15 years, and historically have given astronomers an opportunity to discover new satellites that are normally lost in the glare of the planet's bright ring system.
The Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center for NASA's Office of Space Science.
This image and other images and data received from the Hubble Space Telescope are posted on the World Wide Web on the Space Telescope Science Institute home page at URL http://oposite.stsci.edu/.
Voir l'image PIA01274: Hubble Discovery Image of New Moon Orbiting Saturn sur le site de la NASA.
Epimetheus is a lonely dot beyond Saturn's rings. The little moon appears at lower left, outside the narrow F ring.
Several very faint spokes lurk in the B ring, at right.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 49 degrees above the ringplane. Epimetheus is 116 kilometers (72 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 17, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 63 kilometers (39 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
New hues are creeping into Saturn's northern cloud bands as winter gives way to spring there.
During its first four years of exploration, Cassini has made the Saturn system a familiar place to us Earthlings. The intrepid craft has returned more than 150,000 images since arriving in orbit in mid-2004. In this natural color image, the blues and grays of Saturn's northern hemisphere, so striking in early Cassini images, are diminishing in intensity with the slow change of seasons on Saturn, and are almost imperceptibly being replaced by pale shades of the colors commonly seen by Cassini in the planet's southern hemisphere.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about less than a degree below the ring plane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 23, 2008, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (740,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 68 kilometers (42 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA08415: Saturn ... Four Years Later sur le site de la NASA.
As our robotic emissary to Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft is privileged to behold such fantastic sights as this pairing of two moons beyond the rings. The bright, narrow F ring is the outermost ring structure seen here.
In this scene, bright Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) begins to slip in front of more distant Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). Enceladus is closer to Saturn than Dione, and orbits the planet at greater velocity. Thus, the smaller moon eventually passed the larger one, as seen from the Cassini spacecraft, and continued on its way.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 3, 2006, using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers and at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Enceladus and 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Dione. The view was taken from a phase angle (Sun-moon-spacecraft angle) of 139 degrees; about the same angle with respect to both moons. Image scale is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel on Enceladus and Dione.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A surge in brightness appears on the rings directly opposite the Sun from the Cassini spacecraft. This "opposition surge" travels across the rings as the spacecraft watches (see PIA08267).
See PIA08247 for a detailed explanation of the opposition effect.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 9 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 12, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 853 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 524,374 kilometers (325,830 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 31 kilometers (19 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Two images of Saturn's A and B ring showcase the opposition effect, a brightness surge that is visible on Saturn's rings when the Sun is directly behind the spacecraft.
This view is of the A ring. See PIA08248 for the view of the B ring.
The opposition effect exists because of two contributing factors. One is due to the fact that the shadows of ring particles directly opposite the Sun from Cassini -- the region of opposition -- fall completely behind the particles as seen from the spacecraft. These shadows are thus not visible to the spacecraft: all ring particle surfaces visible to the spacecraft in these two images are in sunlight and therefore bright. Much farther away from the region of opposition, the ring particle shadows become more visible and the scene becomes less bright. The brightness falls off in a circular fashion around the opposition point. The main factor to the opposition surge in this image is an optical phenomenon called "coherent backscatter." Here, the electromagnetic signal from the rays of scattered sunlight making its way back to the spacecraft is enhanced near the region of opposition because, instead of canceling, the electric and magnetic fields comprising the scattered radiation fluctuate in unison.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 262,000 kilometers (163,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft captured this dramatic view of the unilluminated side of Saturn's rings seen at a high phase angle.
Phase angle refers to the angle formed by the Sun, the object being viewed (the rings) and the spacecraft. At an angle of zero degrees the Sun is directly behind Cassini; at 180 degrees the Sun is directly in front of the spacecraft.
Many otherwise faint ring features brighten substantially when viewed at high phase. In this image, normally faint regions within the D and inner C rings can be seen extending from lower right toward center.
The many small specks in the image were created by cosmic rays striking the camera's detector.
This view looks toward the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane. The planet's shadow darkens the scene at lower right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 20, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 211,000 kilometers (131,000 miles) from Saturn and at a phase angle of 166 degrees. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09875: High-phase Rings sur le site de la NASA.
As they wheel about the planet, Saturn's sunlit rings often exhibit dark, radial markings called spokes.
Spokes are seen only in the broad B ring, and can also appear bright in certain viewing geometries (see PIA08302).
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 11 degrees below the ringplane.
Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles across) is a speck above the rings at left. The planet's shadow darkens the ringplane at lower right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 3, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (636,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 19 degrees. Image scale is 61 kilometers (38 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10423: Spokes on the Wheel sur le site de la NASA.
The F ring shepherd moon Prometheus touches the face of Saturn once more before moving off into blackness and continuing in its orbit.
The F ring itself is visible as a thin line just below Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across).
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane. North on Saturn is up and rotated about 30 degrees to the right.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 13, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Prometheus and 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The gravity of Prometheus alters the orbits of the fine, icy particles in Saturn's F ring, creating dazzling structures like those seen here.
Each of these diagonal features, called "streamer-channels" by ring scientists, represents a single close approach of Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across) to the inner edge of the ring.
This observation was optimized to show faint details in the F ring, leaving Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across, at bottom) overexposed.
The view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 15 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 30, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (751,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10489: Warped F Ring sur le site de la NASA.
The complex structure of Saturn's quirky F ring is unfurled in this mosaic made up of images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
The mosaic covers 255 degrees of longitude within the F ring, which represents about 70 percent of the ring's circumference around Saturn. From top to bottom, the mosaic represents an area 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) in radial width.
The 107 images used to create the mosaic were processed to make the ring appear as if it has been straightened, making it easier to see the ring's structure. Here, the vertical axis represents distance from Saturn and the horizontal axis represents longitude around Saturn. This frame of reference is centered on the bright core of the F ring, at the vertical center of the mosaic. In this system, the core is considered to be stationary; objects closer to Saturn (or below vertical center) move toward right, and objects farther from Saturn (here, above the core) move toward left.
Ring scientists now understand a great deal about what causes the various features in the ring. In addition to the powerful perturbing effect of the moon prometheus (PIA07750), there is thought to be a population of small objects in the F-ring region that interact with the ring's core to produce the structures seen (see PIA07716). Two of the images had flaws, which caused the vertical lines seen on the right side of the mosaic. There is also a faint, roughly vertical, wavelike pattern in the view, which is an artifact of the process used to straighten the ring's shape.
The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 31, 2007, at a distance of about 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA08412: Unrolling the F-ring sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft looks toward daybreak on Saturn through the delicate strands of the C ring. Some structure and contrast is visible in the clouds far below.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 862 nanometers. The view was acquired on Nov. 4, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A broad and ghostly spoke drifts past under the Cassini spacecraft's gaze. The spoke-forming region of the B ring displays faint longitudinal variations in brightness, from left to right, a feature seen in other images (see PIA08300).
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 35 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 17, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 158 degrees. Image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's rings appear golden as the planet's shadow drapes across nearly the whole span of the rings. In the upper left corner is Saturn's moon Mimas.
This color image was taken on August 15, 2004, with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera, using the red, green, and blue filters. The image was taken 8.8 million kilometers (5.5 million miles) from Saturn. Contrast has been enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
This is one of the first images taken by the Cassini spacecraft after it successfully entered Saturn's orbit. It was taken by the spacecraft's narrow angle camera.
This amazing close-up of Saturn's rings reveals their incredible variety. In some regions there are wavelike structures, while in other places the rings' structure appears to be more chaotic.
This image shows (from top to bottom) the A ring with the Encke gap, the Cassini Division, and the B and C rings.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 26, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 14 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Specially designed Cassini orbits place Earth and Cassini on opposite sides of Saturn's rings, a geometry known as occultation. Cassini conducted the first radio occultation observation of Saturn's rings on May 3, 2005.
Three simultaneous radio signals at wavelengths of 0.94, 3.6, and 13 centimeters (Ka-, X-, and S-bands) were sent from Cassini through the rings to Earth. The observed change of each signal as Cassini moved behind the rings provided a profile of the distribution of ring material and an optical depth profile.
This simulated image was constructed from the measured optical depth profiles of the Cassini Division and ring A. It depicts the observed structure at about 10 kilometers (6 miles) in resolution. The image shows the same ring A region depicted in a similar image (PIA07874), using a different color scheme to enhance the view of a remarkable array of over 40 wavy features called "density waves" uncovered in the May 3 radio occultation throughout ring A.
Color is used to represent information about ring particle sizes based on the measured effects of the three radio signals. Shades of red indicate regions where there is a lack of particles less than 5 centimeters (about 2 inches) in diameter. Green and blue shades indicate regions where there are particles of sizes smaller than 5 centimeters (2 inches) and 1 centimeter (less than one third of an inch), respectively.
Note the gradual increase in shades of green towards the outer edge of ring A. It indicates gradual increase in the abundance of 5-centimeter (2-inch) and smaller particles. Note also the blue shades in the vicinity of the Keeler gap (the narrow dark band near the edge of ring A). They indicate increased abundance of even smaller particles of diameter less than a centimeter. Frequent collisions between large ring particles in this dynamically active region likely fragment the larger particles into more numerous smaller ones.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radio science team is based at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information on the radio science team visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments-cassini-rss.cfm.
The Cassini spacecraft spies the small moon Atlas, accompanied by bright clumps of material in the F ring, as it gazes down at the unilluminated side of the rings.
This view looks toward the rings from about 4 degrees above the ringplane. Atlas is a mere 32 kilometers (20 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 1, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 532,000 kilometers (330,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 63 degrees at the center of this view. Image scale is about 30 kilometers (18 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A section of Saturn's perturbed F ring displays kinks in its bright strands. At left, edge waves in the Encke Gap, caused by the presence of Pan, can be seen, along with two faint ringlets.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 4 degrees above the ringplane.
The rings disappear into the planet's shadow at the top of the scene.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 14, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 55 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09800: Bright Strands sur le site de la NASA.
Two moons regard each other across a vast distance in this view from the Cassini spacecraft.
Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across, at bottom) is easily identified by its prominent crater, Herschel. Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) sits beyond the rings, appearing almost to rest upon them.This view was obtained from a perspective nearly edge-on with the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 6, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Mimas and 3.2 million kilometers (2 million miles) from Rhea. Image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Mimas and 19 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel on Rhea.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Four moons huddle near Saturn's multi-hued disk.
The coloration of the planet's northern hemisphere has changed noticeably since the Cassini spacecraft's arrival in orbit in mid-2004. Imaging scientists are working to understand the causes of this change, which is suspected to be a seasonal effect.
Giant Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across), with its darker winter hemisphere, dominates the smaller moons in the scene. Beneath and left of Titan is Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across). Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) appears as a bright dot close to the planet and beneath the rings. Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) is a faint speck hugging the rings between the two small moons.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 26, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (920,000 miles) from Saturn and 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Titan. Image scale is 89 kilometers (55 miles) per pixel on Saturn and 164 kilometers (102 miles) per pixel on Titan.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10487: Many Colors, Many Moons sur le site de la NASA.
Two of Saturn's battered, icy companions hover here, above the ringplane.
To get a sense of the three-dimensional nature of the scene, note that the wide band of visible rings is in between the two moons in this view from the Cassini spacecraft. Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across, at left) is outside the far side of the rings. Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is outside the rings and closest to Cassini.
The view is from just beneath the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 18, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Dione and 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Mimas. The image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Dione and 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel on Mimas.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft focuses on a streamer-channel feature in Saturn's F ring.
These features are created by the moon Prometheus as it closely approaches the ring once per orbit (see PIA08397).
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 36 degrees above the ringplane.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 30, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 970,000 kilometers (602,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 45 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10509: Streamer Channel sur le site de la NASA.
Icy sentinels stand guard on Saturn's doorstep, defying the distant Sun.
Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) is seen here at left, along with Enceladus (505 kilometers, 314 miles across), against the planet. At the distance of Saturn, the Sun's light is only about one-hundredth of its intensity at Earth, making this a dim and cold domain.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 5 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 20, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 3.3 million kilometers (2 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 52 degrees. Image scale is 193 kilometers (120 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Held in gravity's embrace, Saturn's darkened, icy rings encircle the clouded gas giant.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 29 degrees above the ringplane. The rings are made visible on this side (their "dark" side) by sunlight that scatters though them and by occulting the planet and background stars.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on March 29, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 113 kilometers (70 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's rings cut across an eerie scene that is ruled by Titan's luminous crescent and globe-encircling haze, broken by the small moon Enceladus, whose icy jets are dimly visible at its south pole. North is up.
The scattered light around planet-sized Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) makes the moon's solid surface visible in silhouette. Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) enjoys far clearer skies than its giant sibling moon.
This view shows the unlit side of Saturn's rings.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 10, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.9 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Enceladus and 5.3 million kilometers (3.3 million miles) from Titan. The view was obtained at a Sun-moon-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 160 degrees relative to both moons. Image scale is 23 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel on Enceladus and 32 kilometers (20 miles) on Titan.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Two small portions of Saturn's F ring shine brilliantly in scattered sunlight as Rhea floats in the distance beyond.
Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 20, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 915,000 kilometers (569,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 151 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks toward the innermost region of Saturn's rings, capturing (from right to left) the C and B rings. The dark, inner edge of the Cassini Division is just visible in the lower left corner. (The innermost D ring is too faint to be clearly seen here.)
The image looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 50 degrees above the ringplane. Thus, from this perspective, the Sun's light makes particles visible as it scatters through the rings toward the camera.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 17, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 64 kilometers (40 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Swirling cloud bands, delicate ring shadows and icy moons make the Saturn system a place of supreme natural beauty. Even Cassini's remarkable images can only provide the slightest sense of the experience of actually being there.
Tethys (at the right, 1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) and Mimas (near the center, 397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) are captured here against the planet's turbulent atmosphere.
Although the rings are only a thin strip from this angle, one can see the structure of the entire main ring system in its shadow on the planet -- from the C ring at the bottom to the faint specter of the F ring at the top.
The image was taken in visible violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 16, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 66 kilometers (41 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft gazes down through the dark side of Saturn's rings toward the softly glowing planet. The night side southern hemisphere is lit by sunlight reflecting off the opposite side of the rings. The planet's shadow slices diagonally across the scene.
This view was acquired from about 23 degrees above the ringplane. The sliver of Saturn's sunlit crescent is partly overexposed as seen through the Cassini Division, a region where there is less material to block or scatter incoming light.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 151 degrees. Image scale is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This image shows a bending wave (right) and density wave in Saturn's A ring, interior to the Encke Gap. It was taken by the narrow angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft after successful entry into Saturn's orbit. The view shows the dark, or unlit, side of the rings.
This spectacular and disorienting maze of lines is a Cassini portrait of the gas giant Saturn, its rings and its small, icy moon Mimas. The rings cast dark shadows across Saturn's northern hemisphere, creating a photonegative effect: dark sections are dense and block the Sun, while bright sections are less dense areas or gaps in the rings, which are more transparent to sunlight.
Saturn's moon Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is seen here against the backdrop created by the shadow of the dense B ring. Above Mimas and the B ring shadow can be seen the broad gap of the Cassini Division. The actual Cassini Division, which divides the A and B rings, is visible about one-third of the way up from the bottom of the image.
This view was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 15, 2004, at a distance of approximately 4.7 million kilometers (2.9 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 28 kilometers (17 miles) per pixel.
This image was taken from beneath the plane of Saturn's rings. It is similar to the serene portrait provided by Cassini in a natural color view from November, 2004 (see PIA06142).
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
This magnificent view looks down upon, and partially through, Saturn's rings from their unlit side.
The densest part of the rings occults the bright globe of Saturn. Scientists can use observations like this to determine precisely the concentration of ring particles.
When the bright source is the signals coming from the spacecraft, the technique is called a 'radio occultation.' In a radio occultation measurement, a signal is beamed toward Earth from Cassini's 4-meter-wide (13-foot) high-gain antenna. Researchers on Earth receive the signal as the spacecraft passes behind the rings. The reduction in Cassini's radio signal tells researchers how densely packed the ring particles are. Scientists can also learn about the size distributions of the particles from occultations.
As an added (but tiny) bonus, Saturn's moon Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is visible as a dark speck against the planet, just outside the A ring.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 2, 2005, at a distance of approximately 617,000 kilometers (383,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 37 kilometers (23 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The strands of Saturn's F ring disappear into the darkness of the planet's shadow. Background stars make trails across the sky during the long exposure.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 55 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 3, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 108 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft captures signs of activity on both sides of the Roche Division— the region between Saturn's A and F rings.
At right, the small moon Daphnis (8 kilometers, or 5 miles across) makes waves in the edges of the narrow Keeler Gap. At left are several minor kinks in the narrow core of the F ring.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 31, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (735,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10491: From A to F sur le site de la NASA.
Both of Saturn's F-ring shepherd moons are seen in this Cassini spacecraft view, which also features narrow ringlets in the Encke gap at left.
Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) is captured in the act of creating another dark gore in the F ring's inner edge. Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) is farther around the ring's outer edge at top.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 5 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 6, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel on both moons.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09816: Ring Herders sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn looks on as three moons round the rings.
From farthest to nearest the Cassini spacecraft: Tethys (1071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) is seen above the rings. Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) lies immediately outside the edge of the narrow F ring. Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) floats beneath the rings' edge.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 6, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 141 kilometers (88 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09773: Circling Satellites sur le site de la NASA.
Rhea and Enceladus hover in the distance beyond Saturn's ringplane. Enceladus (left), bathed in icy particles from Saturn's E ring, appears noticeably brighter than Rhea.
Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) wide. Enceladus is 505 kilometers (314 miles) wide.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 8, 2006, at a distance of approximately 4.3 million kilometers (2.7 million miles) from Enceladus and 4.6 million kilometers (2.9 million miles) from Rhea. The image scale is 26 kilometers (16 miles) per pixel on Enceladus and 28 kilometers (17 miles) per pixel on Rhea.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The ever-changing F ring appears as wisps of smoke in this image taken downstream of the shepherd moon, Prometheus.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 23, 2008 at a distance of approximately 437,000 kilometers (272,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 89 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10518: Smokey Ring sur le site de la NASA.
Pan prepares to be engulfed by the darkness of Saturn's shadow, visible here as it stretches across the rings.
When the Cassini spacecraft took a follow-up image of this same location about 50 seconds later, Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) had vanished into darkness.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 44 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 14, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Pan. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
These side-by-side views of a star seen through Saturn's densely populated B ring show marked contrast between the region where spokes -- the ghostly radial features periodically seen in the B ring -- are produced and regions where no spokes are seen.
In the view at left, the ring displays an uneven grainy texture, with a great deal of variability in brightness along the direction of ring particle motion. In the view at right, the ring is far smoother and more uniform along the same longitudinal direction.
Ring scientists on the Cassini Imaging Team are studying images such as these to understand the processes by which spokes are created. This difference in appearance from one location to another on the ring could provide the researchers with helpful insights into the features' formation.
The views were acquired about half an hour apart as the Cassini spacecraft looked toward the unlit side of the rings from about 33 degrees above the ringplane.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 26, 2006 at a distance of approximately 515,000 kilometers (320,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 102 degrees. Image scale is about 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks close at Saturn to frame a view encompassing the entire C ring. In the dark region closer to the planet lies the much dimmer D ring. The bright B ring wraps around the left side of the scene, while Saturn's shadow darkens the rings at bottom. For reference, Saturn’s ring sequence from its surface outwards is D, C, B, A, F, G then E.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 4, 2005, at a distance of approximately 627,000 kilometers (390,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 34 kilometers (21 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
After journeying a bit more than an hour across the Solar System, bright sunlight reflects off the gleaming icy cliffs in the wispy terrain of Dione and is captured by the Cassini spacecraft's cameras several seconds later.
Saturn's ringplane is here tilted slightly toward the Cassini spacecraft and is bisected by the planet's dark shadow stretching across the rings.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing hemisphere on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 3, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 104 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel on Dione. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The narrow and twisted F ring lights up this scene, which features Mimas against the unlit side of Saturn's ringplane. The F ring contains a great deal of fine, icy particles that are quite effective at scattering sunlight at high phase angles.
Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is seen as a mere crescent in the center of this haunting view.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 13, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.9 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 156 degrees. Image scale is 23 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The dramatic plane of Saturn's rings is indeed a huge expanse. Gazing straight across the vertical center of this view, the Cassini spacecraft takes in more than 200,000 kilometers (124,000 miles) from one side of the rings to the other.
Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is gliding past below center.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 24, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Atlas. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The sunlit face of Saturn's rings shows magnificent detail in this image taken in near infrared light. Most notable is the transition in brightness toward the outer edges of the image, due to differences in composition and ring particle density. The image was obtained from Cassini's vantage point beneath the ring plane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 12, 2004, at a distance of 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn, through a broadband filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 862 nanometers. The image scale is about 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft views the gauzy C ring of Saturn, with the cloud-streaked planet providing a dramatic backdrop.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 32 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 5, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (960,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 46 degrees. Image scale is about 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09863: Seeing the C Ring sur le site de la NASA.
Crater-scarred Rhea floats in the distance, peeking out from behind Saturn's partly shadowed rings. This view looks upward from just beneath the ringplane. The far side of the rings is masked by Saturn's shadow. The north pole of Rhea is obscured by part of the A ring and the sharply defined F ring.
A few bright wispy markings curl around the eastern limb of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 22, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Rhea. The image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Rhea.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This Cassini spacecraft view shows a group of more than a dozen spokes in Saturn's outer B ring. The B ring displays the azimuthal asymmetry, or variation with longitude around the planet, that is characteristic of the spoke-forming region.
The large spoke feature above center -- most likely a grouping of multiple spokes -- is about 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) long and 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) wide.
Left of center, two dark gaps mark the Cassini Division (4,800 kilometers, or 2,980 miles wide).
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 9 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 28, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The rings of Saturn glow softly as sunlight from below wends its way through. Some of the Sun's light bounces off the rings' opposite side and can be seen illuminating Saturn's night side southern hemisphere.
Such a view is only possible from the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 33 degrees above the ringplane. Shadows of the innermost rings are cast upon the planet at upper left. The edge of Saturn's shadow cuts a straight line across the rings near upper right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on March 30, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 117 kilometers (73 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The extreme contrast in this view of the unlit side of Saturn's rings is intentional. Contrast-enhanced views like this are used to look for spokes (the transient, ghostly lanes of dust seen in NASA Voyager and Hubble Space Telescope images), but so far, none have been seen by Cassini.
The apparent absence of spokes is thought to be related to the Sun's elevation angle above the ringplane, which currently is rather high. As summer wanes in the southern hemisphere, the Sun's angle will drop, and spoke viewing is expected to become more favorable.
In unlit-side views, the denser ring regions (and empty gaps) appear dark, while less populated and dustier ring regions appear bright.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 3, 2005, at a distance of approximately 781,000 kilometers (485,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 43 kilometers (27 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Cassini has Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across, at bottom) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across, at center left) on its side as it gazes across the ringplane at distant Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across, at top). The two smaller moons were on the side of the rings closer to Cassini when this image was taken. Little structure is visible on the moons, aside from a stippling of craters.
Two dark notches in the rings at right are the Encke and Keeler gaps. The thin, bright arc of the F ring extends toward far right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on November 17, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.1 million kilometers (2 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 20 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel on Tethys and 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel Mimas.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
In the Maxwell gap within Saturn's C ring resides a narrow, eccentric ringlet of the same name. Astronomers are studying this ringlet to understand how it is maintained.
One possibility is that a small moon or two lurk in the gap. Cassini plans to search for any such moons.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 25, 2008 at a distance of approximately 876,000 kilometers (545,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 36 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10516: Maxwell's That Ends Well sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's narrow F ring partly obscures the small moon Epimetheus. Interior to the F ring is the bright A ring.
Epimetheus (113 kilometers, or 70 miles across at its widest point) is on the side of the rings opposite from Cassini.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 2 degrees below the ringplane.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 11, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (766,000 miles) from Epimetheus. Image scale is 7 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10432: Obscuring Epimetheus sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft spies multiple spokes in Saturn's outer B ring. The precise origin and evolution of these transient features continue to provide ring scientists with intriguing puzzles to solve.
Most of these spokes are about 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) long; the two near the bottom of the scene are about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) wide.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 8 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 2, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini took a series of images on Sept. 9, 2006 as it watched the bright red giant star Aldebaran slip behind Saturn's rings. This type of observation is known as a stellar occultation and uses a star whose brightness is well known. As Cassini watches the rings pass in front, the star's light fluctuates, providing information about the concentrations of ring particles within the various radial features in the rings.
Here, Cassini watches the star through the part of the rings masked by Saturn's shadow. The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 20 degrees below the ringplane. Bright Aldebaran is over exposed, creating thin vertical lines on its image.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 351,000 kilometers (218,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Sunlight reflects off the bright, frozen surfaces of the billions and billions of particles comprising Saturn's rings to brighten the planet's southern skies.
The particles in Saturn's rings are each too small to be seen by Cassini in this image. If they could, each would look like the bright reflective crescent of Enceladus (505 kilometers, 314 miles across) seen here, with each reflecting sunlight onto the southern hemisphere of the planet.
The image was taken in polarized infrared light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 2, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 119 degrees. The image scale is 104 kilometers (65 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.Saturn in the Cassini era has proved to be an unexpectedly colorful place, compared to the browns and golds imaged by the two Voyager spacecraft.
Saturn is headed toward equinox in 2009, followed by springtime in the northern hemisphere. Having a spacecraft in orbit while such changes occur will be of great benefit in scientists' quest to understand the atmospheres of the giant planets.
The planet's oblate, or squashed, shape is clearly visible in this view. The low-density planet rotates so fast (in about 10.5 hours) that it flattens out slightly around its middle. The bluish tint of the northern latitudes is presumed to be a seasonal effect, and will likely disappear entirely as the north receives increasingly greater amounts of sunlight.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 29, 2007 at a distance of approximately 3.1 million kilometers (2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 184 kilometers (115 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA08396: The Painted Globe sur le site de la NASA.
A close-up of the F ring shows dark gores in its interior faint ringlets following the passage of Prometheus. Each gore represents a single interaction of the moon with the F ring material. The gores shear out over successive orbits, becoming the long, curving features seen here.
The dark Keeler gap (42 kilometers, or 26 miles wide) is seen at right. The F ring core is similar in scale to the gap, at about 50 kilometers (30 miles) in width.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 31 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
When Cassini gazes down at Saturn's rings with the Sun directly behind the spacecraft, an unusual phenomenon called the "opposition effect" can be seen. The effect is visible here as a bright region, near right, toward the inner edge of the A ring.
The precise nature of the effect at Saturn is still under scrutiny by imaging scientists. However the effect in Saturn's rings can be witnessed from Earth, when the viewing conditions are right. It can also be seen in photographs of the lunar surface taken by the Apollo astronauts.
To understand the effect, imagine an observer standing on a dry, sandy beach. When the Sun is directly behind the observer, the shadows cast by the grains in the field of view in front of the observer will fall directly behind the grains and will not be visible. When the Sun is at any other angle relative to the observer, the shadows cast by the grains will be visible to the observer. These shadows in the field of view make the scene a bit darker. This effect would cause a centrally bright spot to appear on the sandy surface in the first case, but not in the second.
For Cassini, the opposition effect is seen when the angle between the Sun, the rings and the spacecraft is extremely close to zero. For the sequence of images during which this view was obtained, Cassini maintained this viewing angle and the bright spot appeared to move across the rings with the spacecraft's motion.
The moon Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles, across) is seen here at lower left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 7, 2005, at a distance of approximately 738,000 kilometers (458,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 40 kilometers (25 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Two moons that have profound impacts on the rings, Mimas and Prometheus, are seen here with the F ring.
Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles across), the larger and much more distant of the moons, creates the Cassini division between the A and B rings.
Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across), although much smaller than Mimas, is half of a duo responsible for maintaining the narrow F ring.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10523: Ring Shapers sur le site de la NASA.
This excellent grouping of three moons -- Dione, Tethys and Pandora -- near the rings provides a sampling of the diversity of worlds that exists in Saturn's realm.
A 330-kilometer-wide (205 mile) impact basin can be seen near the bottom right on Dione (at left). Ithaca Chasma and the region imaged during the Cassini spacecraft's Sept. 24, 2005, flyby can be seen on Tethys (middle). Little Pandora makes a good showing here as well, displaying a hint of surface detail.
Tethys is on the far side of the rings in this view; Dione and Pandora are much nearer to the Cassini spacecraft.
Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across and Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.
This image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel on Dione and Pandora and 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Sunlight scatters through Saturn's rings, emerging on the unilluminated side. Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across, lower right) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across, upper left) are visible here, respectively internal and external to the narrow F ring.
This view looks toward the rings from about 17 degrees above the ringplane. The planet's shadow darkens the rings near upper left.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 20, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 103 kilometers (64 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09851: Scattered Sunlight sur le site de la NASA.
The oddball shapes of Saturn's small ring moons Prometheus and Epimetheus are discernible in the view from Cassini. Saturn's shadow carves a dark, diagonal swath across the ring plane, even occulting the outer edge of thin, knotted F ring. Prometheus is 102 kilometers, or 63 miles across, while Epimetheus is 116 kilometers, or 72 miles across.
Prometheus is visible inside the F ring near center, and Epimetheus is seen near the lower right corner. North on Saturn is to the upper right. The view is from beneath the ring plane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 22, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft captures a gathering of three moons near the rings' outer edge as the icy worlds dutifully march about Saturn.
Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) hangs in front of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) near left. Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) skirts the outer edge of the F ring below center.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 2, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 3.7 million kilometers (2.3 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 22 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This spectacular image shows Prometheus (at right) and Pandora (at left), with their flock of icy ring particles (the F ring) between them. Pandora is exterior to the ring, and closer to the spacecraft here. Each of the shepherd satellites has an unusual shape, with a few craters clearly visible.
The effect of Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) on the F ring is visible as it pulls material out of the ring when it is farthest from Saturn in its orbit. Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.
The image was taken in polarized green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 29, 2005, at a distance of approximately 459,000 kilometers (285,000 miles) from Pandora and 483,500 kilometers (300,500 miles) from Prometheus. The image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel on Pandora and 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel on Prometheus. The view was acquired from about a third of a degree below the ringplane.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.Squinting at this view of Saturn's rings reveals not one but two of the four narrow ringlets in the Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles, wide). The innermost of the two ringlets is much brighter and full of clumps.
The complicated and dynamic features in the Encke Gap are extensively influenced by the presence of Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles, across), which orbits in the center of the gap. The Encke Gap may contain other small moonlets, which imaging team members hope to discover in the future.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 273,000 kilometers (170,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
With its dazzling rings, Saturn radiates a beauty and splendor like no other known world. Here, Cassini has captured the cool crescent of Saturn from above the ringplane, with the planet's shadow cutting neatly across the many lanes of ice.
Saturn's southern hemisphere is lit on the night side by reflected light from the rings. The rings cast shadows onto the northern daylit hemisphere at the left, and can be seen in silhouette against the faintly illuminated `dark side' of the planet at the right.
Light reflected inside the camera has left a generally streak-like pattern across the raw images used for this color composite. This pattern appears as multicolor fringes in the final product, but is greatly minimized because of the image processing techniques.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 31, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 163 degrees. Image scale is 153 kilometers (95 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Storms whip up the cloud bands of Saturn's southern hemisphere in this infrared view. Small fractions of the A and F rings are visible at right.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of light centered at 890 nanometers. The view was acquired on Dec. 1, 2006 at a distance of approximately 910,000 kilometers (566,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 130 degrees. Image scale is 51 kilometers (32 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's moons Prometheus and Pandora are captured here in a single image taken from less than a degree above the dark side of Saturn's rings. Pandora is on the right, and Prometheus is on the left. Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) across. Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.
The two moons are separated by about 69,000 kilometers (43,000 miles) in this view.
The F ring, extending farthest to the right, contains a great deal of fine, icy material that is more the size of dust than the boulders thought to comprise the dense B ring. These tiny particles are particularly bright from this viewing geometry, especially at right near the ansa, or edge.
At left of center, a couple of ringlets within the Encke gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide) can also be easily seen due to their fine dust-sized material. The other dark features in the rings are density waves and bending waves.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 20, 2005, when Cassini was a mean distance of 1.85 million kilometers (1.15 million miles) from the moons. The image scale is about 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on both moons.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
This low elevation image shows the G ring arc recently discovered by Cassini. This faint arc of material is maintained by a gravitational interaction with the moon Mimas.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 20, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.185 million kilometers (736,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 23 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10524: Lost Arc sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini captured this arresting view of Saturn just before Epimetheus crossed into the blinding glare of the planet's sunlit crescent and was lost.
As it orbits Saturn, Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) hugs the outside edge of the narrow F ring, beyond the orbit of Pandora. The F ring is the brightest ring feature seen here. Saturn's southern hemisphere is softly lit by sunlight reflected off the rings.
A less obvious feature in this view is the planet's shadow, which begins to darken the inner regions of the rings at left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 4 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Epimetheus and 4.1 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Saturn. The Sun-Epimetheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle is 161 degrees. Image scale is 25 kilometers (16 miles) per pixel on Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The path that lies ahead for the Cassini-Huygens mission is indicated in this image which illustrates where the spacecraft will be just 27 days from now, when it arrives at Saturn and crosses the ring plane 33 minutes before performing its critical orbital insertion maneuver.
The X indicates the point where Cassini will pierce the ring plane on June 30, 2004, going from south to north of the ring plane, 33 minutes before the main engine fires to begin orbital insertion. The indicated point is between the narrow F-ring on the left and Saturn's tenuous G-ring which is too faint to be seen in this exposure.
The image was taken on May 11, 2004 when the spacecraft was 26.3 million kilometers (16.3 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 158 kilometers (98 miles) per pixel. Moons visible in this image: Janus (181 kilometers or 113 miles across), one of the co-orbital moons; Pandora (84 kilometers or 52 miles across), one of the F ring shepherding moons; and Enceladus (499 kilometers or 310 miles across), a moon which may be heated from within and thus have a liquid sub-surface ocean.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
This close-up of the inner edge of the Cassini Division shows an enormous amount of structure, including a grainy texture in the bright outer B ring material near the gap edge.
An extreme enhancement of the original image, presented at right, reveals the grainy region with greater clarity.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 54 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 8, 2006 at a distance of approximately 378,000 kilometers (235,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 68 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The bright arc of material in Saturn's G ring is seen here as it rounds the ring's edge, or ansa. The ring arc orbits Saturn along the inner edge of the G ring.
Cassini spacecraft scientists think the arc contains a population of relatively large, icy particles held in place by a gravitational an orbital resonance with the moon Mimas. Micrometeoroids collide with the large particles, releasing smaller, dust-sized particles that brighten the arc. The plasma in the giant planet's magnetic field sweeps through this arc continually, dragging out the fine particles and creating the G ring. The ring arc orbits Saturn along the inner edge of the G ring.
The diffuse glow at left shows the extended nature of this faint ring.
The ring moved against the background stars during this exposure, creating the star trails seen here.
The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from less than a degree below the ringplane.
The upper, brighter ring section is the one closer to Cassini. Here, the ring arc is coming toward Cassini and moving toward right as it rounds the ansa.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 22, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (740,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 13 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel in the radial, or outward-from-Saturn, direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10472: Arc in Motion sur le site de la NASA.
This Cassini spacecraft view shows details of Saturn's outer A ring, including the Encke and Keeler gaps. The A ring brightens substantially outside the Keeler Gap.
On both sides of the broad Encke gap are bright spiral density waves. See PIA08824 for comparison.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 52 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The view was acquired on Feb. 19, 2007 at a distance of approximately 950,000 kilometers (590,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The real jewels of Saturn are arguably its stunning collection of icy moons. Seen here with the unlit side of the rings are Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across at right), Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across at left) and Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across at center) with its fountain-like geysers.
The faint, vertical banding in the image is due to "noise" in the spacecraft electronics. This noise is difficult to remove from an image that has a very wide dynamic range -- i.e., a wide range of brightness levels -- as in the difference between gleaming Titan and the faint plumes of Enceladus.
Additionally, a reflection of Titan's light within the camera optics is likely responsible for the faint secondary image of Titan's limb to the left of the giant moon.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 10, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.9 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Enceladus, 5.3 million kilometers (3.3 million miles) from Titan and 4.4 million kilometers (2.7 million miles) from Tethys. The Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle is 160 degrees on Enceladus. Image scale is 23 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel on Enceladus, 32 kilometers (20 miles) per pixel on Titan and 26 kilometers (16 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The multitude of grooves for which Saturn's rings are famed, clumps in the F ring, and three Saturnian moons are visible in this image. Moons visible in the image are: Mimas (398 kilometers or 247 miles across) above the rings at left; Epimetheus (116 kilometers or 72 miles across) just above the A ring; Enceladus (499 kilometers or 310 miles across) near upper right. The image was taken with the Cassini narrow angle camera on May 10, 2004, at a distance of 27.1 million kilometers (16.8 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 162 kilometers (101 miles) per pixel. Contrast in the image was enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
A color portrait of Saturn's sunlight-scattering rings hosts a group of several moons.
Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) is visible at top. At bottom, in increasing distance from the rings are Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across), Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) and Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across).
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 10 degrees above the ringplane. Saturn's shadow can be seen on the rings at upper left.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this composite color view.
The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 22, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 110 kilometers (68 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09824: Field of Moons sur le site de la NASA.
Two of Saturn's moons coast along the outer edge of the main ring system. The orbits of seven small moons cluster just outside the F ring—between the orbits of Pan and the co-orbital moons Janus and Epimetheus.
Pan (28 kilometers, or 17 miles across at its widest point) appears as a bright dot within the Encke Gap, right of center. Janus (179 kilometers, 111 miles across at its widest point) lies outside the A and F rings, below center.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 2 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 22, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles) from Janus. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10475: Pan and Janus sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's narrow F ring displays two bright strands, flanked by fainter material. The continuing evolution of this quirky ring is an ongoing subject of study for Cassini scientists.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 4 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 7, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 3.1 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 29 degrees. Image scale is 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Looking upward from beneath the ringplane, the Cassini spacecraft spies Saturn's "wave maker" and "flying saucer" moons.
Daphnis (8 kilometers, or 5 miles across at its widest point) and its gravitationally induced edge waves are seen at left within the Keeler Gap. The equatorial bulge on Atlas (30 kilometers, or 19 miles across at its widest point) is clearly visible here.
See PIA06237 and PIA08405 for additional images and information about these two moons.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 16 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 22, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 898,000 kilometers (558,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09907: Atlas and Daphnis sur le site de la NASA.
Old spokes never die, they just fade away. That is the current thinking of scientists who study these ephemeral features in Saturn's rings.
This "difference image" is actually a composite of two images of the B ring, taken about 45 seconds apart. The view illustrates how the several spokes imaged here moved between exposures. The spokes were bright against the rings in both original images, but the brightness of the earlier image was reversed so that the spoke movement is easy to discern. The "dark" image of the spokes was taken first, thus rotation in the scene is toward the bottom.
The topmost spoke is about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) long and about 600 kilometers (370 miles) wide. The separation between the top spoke and the bottom one is about 8,500 kilometers (5,300 miles).
The available evidence seems to indicate that spokes are radial when generated and then shear out as they orbit the planet, eventually dispersing and fading out after about three and one-half hours.
All of these spokes are nearly radial on their trailing (top) edges, except for the thin, bottommost spoke. That spoke and the wedge-shaped one above it have a shear of about 38 degrees, meaning they have an age of about two and one-quarter hours, assuming they were first radial and then sheared their entire lives.
The faint horizontal banding in the image is due to "noise" in the spacecraft electronics that was picked up by the camera system and enhanced by the processing technique used here.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 32 degrees above the ringplane.
The two images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 1, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft spies an intriguing bright clump in Saturn's F ring. Also of interest is the dark gash that appears to cut through the ring immediately below the clump. Scientists continue to monitor this ring for small, transient clumps of material, as well as the effects of the shepherd moon Prometheus.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 28 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 5, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 12 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's B and C rings shine in diffuse, scattered light as the Cassini spacecraft looks on the planet's night side. The southern hemisphere is lit by sunlight reflecting off the rings, while the north shines much more feebly in the dim light that filters through the rings and is scattered on the northern hemisphere.
The fine, innermost rings are seen silhouetted against the southern hemisphere of the planet before partially disappearing into shadow.
The color of the rings appears more golden because of the increased scattering in the rings brought about by the high phase angle and the view being toward rings' the unlit side. Saturn also looks more golden because of the high phase angle here.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained by the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 28, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 151 degrees. Image scale is 83 kilometers (51 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's two ring-embedded moons are pictured here, along with clearly visible signs of their perturbing effects on the ring edges that border the gaps they inhabit.
These ripples along the ring edges arise when the perturbing moon passes by, creating leading wakes in the faster moving ring material interior to the moon and trailing wakes as it passes the slower moving ring material beyond the moon. Being larger than Daphnis, Pan creates correspondingly larger wakes.
Daphnis (7 kilometers, or 4.3 miles across) is seen in the Keeler Gap at left, and Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) appears near center in the Encke Gap.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 10 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 1, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (819,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09812: Daphnis and Pan sur le site de la NASA.
The unlit side of the rings glows with scattered sunlight as two moons circle giant Saturn. The light reaching Cassini in this view has traveled many paths before being captured.
At left, Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) presents its dark side. Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across), on the far side of the rings, is lit by "Saturnshine," or reflected sunlight coming from the planet. Saturn, in turn, is faintly lit in the south by light reflecting off the rings.
Saturn's shadow darkens the rings, tapering off toward the left side of this view.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.9 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Mimas, 4.3 kilometers (2.7 millionmiles) from Enceladus and 4.1 million kilometers (2.6 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 25 kilometers (16 million miles) per pixel on Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The fine, dust-sized particles of ice in the F ring and Encke Gap ringlets appear relatively bright, with the rings positioned almost directly between the Cassini spacecraft and the Sun.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane. At bottom, the planet's shadow casts the rings into darkness.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 24, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 298,000 kilometers (185,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 152 degrees. Image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09777: Bright "Dust" sur le site de la NASA.
Prometheus glides across the scene from left to right, sculpting and perturbing particles in Saturn's F ring. The bright core of the F ring is visible near the ring's ansa, or outer edge.
Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) across.
This view looks toward the illuminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 28, 2007 at a distance of approximately 279,000 kilometers (174,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This detailed view of Saturn's mid-B ring shows intriguing structure, the cause of which has yet to be explained by ring scientists. The image shows a radial location located between approximately 107,200 to 115,700 kilometers (66,600 to 71,900 miles) from Saturn.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 3, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft gazes toward a distant star as Saturn's rings slip past in the foreground. At upper left is the outer A ring, with its dark Keeler Gap. At lower right, a train of bright clumps shuttles past in the wispy F ring.
A temporal sequence of images like this allow Cassini scientists to correlate features in the rings with stellar occultation data acquired by other instruments. As the star passes behind the rings, the changes in its brightness indicate how much empty space is between particles at different locations on the rings.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 56 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 30, 2006 at a distance of approximately 633,440 kilometers (393,686 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This is an artist concept of a close-up view of Saturn's ring particles. The planet Saturn is seen in the background (yellow and brown). The particles (blue) are composed mostly of ice, but are not uniform. They clump together to form elongated, curved aggregates, continually forming and dispersing. The space between the clumps is mostly empty. The largest individual particles shown are a few meters (yards) across. Image by Marty Peterson, based on a 1984 image by William K. Hartmann. Hartmann's image illustrated early research by Stuart Weidenschilling and co-workers at the Planetary Science Insitute, on dynamical ephemeral bodies in Saturn's rings.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph was designed and built at, and the team is based at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph team home page is at http://lasp.colorado.edu/cassini.
Voir l'image PIA10081: Saturn's Recycling Rings sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini finds artistic harmony in the dark and icy realm of Saturn. The view shows the crescent of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) and the outer edge of Saturn's main rings.
The dim, unlit side of the rings is shown here. The narrow F ring appears bright when seen from angles near the plane of the rings. Saturn's shadow engulfs the rings along their near edge.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 29, 2006 at a distance of approximately 884,000 kilometers (549,000 miles) from Tethys. Image scale is 53 kilometers (33 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
As the particles comprising Saturn's A ring slip into the planet's shadow, they find themselves briefly in the penumbra of Saturn's shadow. In this very narrow region along the edge of the shadow, part (but not all) of the Sun is still visible around the side of the planet, creating only a partial shadow there and making the shadow edge look fuzzy.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 26, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 9 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Atmospheric features in Saturn's north polar region are revealed in spectacular detail in this Cassini image, taken in the near infrared spectral region, where methane gas is not very absorbing. The dark shadows of Saturn's rings drape across the planet, creating the illusion of atmospheric bands. Dots of bright clouds give the appearance that this is an active place.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Dec. 14, 2004, at a distance of 717,800 kilometers (446,100 miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 939 nanometers. The image scale is about 43 kilometers (27 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For images visit the Cassini imaging team home page http://ciclops.org.
The dim, unlit side of Saturn's rings hides a secret in this view. Shy Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) can be seen peeking out from behind the rings below center.
The bright features in this scene, including the F ring along the rings' periphery, are regions where tiny, dust-sized particles scatter light toward the camera. This phenomenon is often seen at high phase angles -- that is, Sun-ring-spacecraft angles -- approaching 180 degrees.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 3, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Mimas and phase angle of 161 degrees. Image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Incredible swirling details in Saturn's northern clouds can be seen in this dazzling view. Shadows cast by the rings embrace the northern hemisphere.
The view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 16 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 10, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 939 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 72 kilometers (45 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The night skies of Saturn are graced by the planet's dazzling rings, but as this image shows, one's view could be very different depending on the season and from which hemisphere one gazes up.
This point of view shows that the southern hemisphere is much brighter on the planet's night side than the northern hemisphere, owing to the brilliance of sunlight reflecting off the southern illuminated rings. The northern hemisphere sees only the ghostly glow of the dim scattered light that manages to penetrate the rings.
The planet's shadow eclipses the rings themselves in the lower half of this scene, but close inspection shows ringlets in the C ring silhouetted against the southern latitudes.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 952,000 kilometers (592,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 124 degrees. Image scale is 53 kilometers (33 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's softly glowing rings shine in scattered sunlight.
The B ring presents a remarkable difference in brightness between the near and far arms (bottom and top of the image, respectively). The strong variation in brightness could be due to the presence of wake-like features in the B ring.
See PIA08389 for a labeled Cassini map of the rings.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 5 degrees above the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired at a distance of approximately 574,000 kilometers (357,000 miles) from Saturn. At the center of the image, the Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle is 114 degrees, and the image scale is 34 kilometers (21 miles) per pixel in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09860: Rings Aglow sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft took a series of images on Sept. 9, 2006 as it watched the bright red giant star Aldebaran slip behind Saturn's rings. This type of observation is known as a stellar occultation and uses a star whose brightness is well known. As Cassini watches the rings pass in front of the star, the star's light fluctuates, providing information about the concentrations of ring particles within the various radial features in the rings.
This view shows the Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide) and the faint ringlets which share the gap with the embedded moon Pan. The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 19 degrees below the ringplane. Bright Aldebaran is overexposed, creating thin vertical lines on its image.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 359,000 kilometers (233,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
These figures show four propeller-shaped structures discovered by the Cassini spacecraft in close-up images of Saturn's A ring.
The propellers are about 5 kilometers (3 miles) long from tip to tip, and the radial offset (the "leading" dash is slightly closer to Saturn) is about 300 meters (1,000 feet). See PIA07791 and PIA07792 for additional images and information about these features.
The figures were cropped from two original Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera images and magnified for visibility. The images were then re-projected so that orbital motion is to the left and Saturn is up. The unseen moonlets lie in the center of each structure. The figures were cropped from two original Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera images, taken during Saturn orbit insertion on July 1, 2004, and magnified for visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Staring toward the outer edge of Saturn's main rings, the Cassini spacecraft spots Pandora and tiny Atlas. Several clumps are visible in the narrow F ring, as well as multiple dusty strands flanking the F ring core.
Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) is seen here outside the F ring, while Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is a mere dim pixel just above the bright outer edge of the A ring.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 19, 2006, using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 862 nanometers, and at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Gazing across the plains of Saturn's icy rings, Cassini catches the F ring shepherd moon Pandora hovering in the distance.
See PIA07632 for an up-close color view of Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 116 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Pandora. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft captures three moons at once as they hurtle around Saturn. In the background, Saturn's night side covers the more distant portion of the rings, betraying the presence of the unseen giant.
At left and right respectively, the two smaller moons are Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across). Larger Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) lies below.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 16, 2006, at a distance of approximately 3.3 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A lone moon coasts along in this view, which was taken from less than a degree below Saturn's sunlit ringplane. The rings are squashed into a narrow band from this viewing angle, foreshortening all of their radial features.
Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) travels from left to right here, led by its large crater Herschel.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 26, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (661,000 miles) from Mimas. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09779: Collapsed Rings sur le site de la NASA.
The moon Tethys cruises past, in front of Saturn's edge-on rings. The rings cast threadlike shadows onto the northern hemisphere of the planet.
The large crater Odysseus can be seen on the eastern limb of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across).
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 7, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of visible light centered at 619 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 4.1 million kilometers (2.6 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 49 kilometers (30 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's odd but ever-intriguing F ring displays multiple lanes and several bright clumps. The Keeler and Encke gaps are visible in the outer A ring, at right.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 28 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 5, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 12 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Click on the image for movie of
Surging Onward
A brilliant spot of sunlight, the opposition effect, travels outward across the rings as the Cassini spacecraft orbits Saturn. This surge in ring brightness is created around the point directly opposite the Sun from the spacecraft.
This movie sequence of 29 images shows the opposition surge moving from the outer B ring, across the sparsely populated Cassini Division and onto the A ring. From Cassini's perspective, the rings are seen projected onto the planet where the ring shadows can be seen through the rings. This perspective, including rings and ring shadows, changes continuously during the sequence, giving the false impression that the ring features themselves are changing.
This image sequence was taken over 15 minutes on Aug. 16, 2006. The images were acquired in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 253,000 kilometers (157,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft stares at the Huygens Gap— the region between Saturn's outer B ring and the ringlets of the prominent Cassini Division—in this high-resolution view.
Ring scientists think that the scrambled pattern seen here in the B ring's outer edge might represent gravitational clumping of particles there—that is, the self-gravity of groups of particles orbiting together makes them form clumps.
The outer B ring edge (at left) is maintained by a resonance with the moon Mimas.
The clumping feature may be due to the fact that this region is compressed periodically, owing to perturbations by Mimas. Cassini will take additional images of this region as researchers continue to investigate the interesting feature.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 43 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 28, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 246,000 kilometers (153,000 miles) above the rings and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 84 degrees. Image scale is about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09855: Inspecting the Edge sur le site de la NASA.
Prometheus interacts gravitationally with the inner flanking ringlets of the F ring, creating dark channels as it passes.
This image was taken in a complete azimuthal scan of the rings, during which Cassini followed Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) around the rings for one complete orbit, or about 14 hours.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 41 degrees above the ringplane. The moon is partly lit by sunlight (at left) and elsewhere lit by reflected light from Saturn.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 152 degrees. Image scale is 9 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
As Cassini swung around to the dark side of the planet during its first close passage after orbit insertion, the intrepid spacecraft spied three ring moons whizzing around the planet.
Visible in this image are: Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) brightest and above center; Janus (181 kilometers, or 112 miles across) second brightest at upper left; and Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) just above the main rings at upper left.
The normally bright B ring appears very dark from this vantage point. Regions with smaller concentrations of particles, such as the Cassini division (bright near center) transmit more sunlight and thus are brighter.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Oct. 27, 2004, at a distance of 757,000 kilometers (470,000miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 42 kilometers (26 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
A point of light flickers behind Saturn's rings as multiple instruments on the Cassini spacecraft observe a stellar occultation of Antares (or alpha Scorpii).
Such observations are designed to understand the fine-scale structure of the rings. Scientists look at variations in the observed brightness of the star (whose actual brightness is well known) to determine the opacity of the rings in different places.
Among other things, Cassini's prior stellar occultations have been used to examine density and bending waves induced in the A ring by Saturn's various moons.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 34 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 3, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 541,000 kilometers (336,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 4 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09829: Flickering Antares sur le site de la NASA.
A bright spoke extends across the unilluminated side of Saturn's B ring about the same distance as that from London to Cairo. The background ring material displays some azimuthal (i.e., left to right) asymmetry.
The radial (outward from Saturn) direction is up in this view. A noticeable kink in the spoke occurs very close to the radius where ring particles orbit the planet at the speed of Saturn's magnetic field. Such a connection is most intriguing to scientists studying these ghostly ring phenomena.
If gravity alone were affecting the spoke material, there would be no kink and the entire spoke would be angled toward right, like the bottom portion. That it bends to the left above the kink indicates that some other force, possibly related to the magnetic field, is acting on the spoke material. The shape might also indicate that the spoke did not form in a radial orientation, thus challenging scientists' assumptions about these features.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 58 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 23, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A grandiose gesture of gravity, Saturn's icy rings fan out across many thousands of kilometers of space. The moon Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) dutifully follows its path, like the billions and billions of particles comprising the rings. The little moon is seen at the center of this view, within the Encke gap.
The famous Cassini Division spans upper left corner of the scene. The Cassini Division is approximately 4,800-kilometers-wide (2,980 miles) and is visible in small telescopes from Earth.
The narrow, knotted F ring is thinly visible just beyond the main rings.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale on Pan is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Gazing across the ringplane, the Cassini spacecraft spots a Saturn-lit Mimas and the tiny Trojan moon Helene. Only the bright crescent on Mimas' eastern limb is lit by the Sun; the moon's night side is illuminated by Saturnshine, or "greylight" as it is called by imaging scientists.
Helene (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) shares the orbit of Dione (not pictured here) and is visible as a speck to the left of Mimas. This view shows the Saturn-facing side of Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 2, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 121 degrees. Helene was about 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) distant. The image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Mimas.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.This expansive view takes in most of Saturn's main ring system, from the outer C ring to the narrow and knotted-looking F ring. The broad brightness plateaus in the C ring (at bottom) transform into the more densely populated (and thus darker in this viewing geometry) B ring. The rings' appearance becomes brighter and smoother beyond the bands of the Cassini Division, in the A ring.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 49 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 21, 2006 at a distance of approximately 539,000 kilometers (335,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 98 degrees. Image scale is 29 kilometers (18 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft stares at the Huygens Gap— the region between Saturn's outer B ring and the ringlets of the prominent Cassini Division—in this high-resolution view.
Ring scientists think that the scrambled pattern seen here in the B ring's outer edge might represent gravitational clumping of particles there—that is, the self-gravity of groups of particles orbiting together makes them form clumps. This may be due to the fact that this region is compressed periodically, owing to perturbations by the moon Mimas. The outer B ring edge (at left) is, in fact, sculpted by an orbital resonance with Mimas.
The clumping feature may be due to the fact that this region is compressed periodically, owing to perturbations by Mimas.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 44 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 10, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 270,000 kilometers (168,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10404: Structure Along the Edge sur le site de la NASA.
Prometheus shines brightly in this image, taken as part of the ongoing campaign to precisely determine the orbits of Saturn's small moons.
Moons are usually quite bright in this type of observation, due to the long exposure times employed. Long exposures are required in order to gather enough light so that dim, 12th (or even 13th or 14th) magnitude stars are visible in the background, making it possible to determine where the Cassini spacecraft is pointed on the sky with great accuracy. Imaging scientists are then able to precisely determine the position of the moon's center, thus refining their understanding of the moon's orbit and any changes to it over time due to perturbations by other moons.
Two stars can be seen in this view: one to the right of Prometheus and one near lower left.
Exterior to Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) is the F ring, with its inner and outer flanking ringlets and a streamer channel created by the moon. The outer A ring is seen at top.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 21 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 22, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 34 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09852: Orbit Quest sur le site de la NASA.
With the icy rings between them, Dione and Tethys each show off the prominent features for which they are known. Dione, beyond the rings, displays wispy fractures that adorn its trailing side. Tethys, on the side of the rings closest to Cassini, shows its large impact basin Odysseus.
At right, the night side of Saturn can be seen occulting the far side of the rings. The view shows the Saturn-facing side of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) and the anti-Saturn side of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.5 million kilometers (2.2 million miles) from Dione and 2.8 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Tethys. The image scale is 21 kilometers (13 miles) per pixel on Dione and 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.Large regions of Saturn's night side are illuminated by the planet's gleaming rings. Except for a sliver of the sunlit crescent at left, this view shows a part of the planet lit almost entirely by ringshine.
The southern hemisphere, at bottom, receives its illumination from sunlight that strikes the rings' southern face and is reflected onto the planet. The northern hemisphere, at top, is lit by the feeble light that wends its way through countless ring particles to emerge on the rings' north face.
Despite the dim lighting on the northern part of the planet, many cloud features can be seen there nevertheless.
This view was acquired from about 44 degrees above the ringplane. At bottom, the planet's shadow stretches across the D and C rings.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 23, 2007 at a distance of approximately 901,000 kilometers (560,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 50 kilometers (31 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10476: Saturn by Ringshine sur le site de la NASA.
Looking down through the A ring and Cassini Division, the Cassini spacecraft sees the bright limb of Saturn. The view shows a portion the rings from the outer B ring, at upper right, to the F ring at bottom.
See PIA08389 for a labeled map of Saturn's rings.
The perspective is toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 15 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 12, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 28 kilometers (17 miles) per pixel in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction; and 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel in the longitudinal, or around Saturn, direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09820: Peering Through the Plane sur le site de la NASA.
A trio of large storms embraces in Saturn's high north. The three prominent vortices seen here are each wide enough to span the distance from New York City to Denver, or from London to Moscow.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 30 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 17, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 939 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (899,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 83 kilometers (52 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09904: Immense Vortices sur le site de la NASA.
This view looks up toward the sunlit side of Saturn's rings, as Dione and Pandora trundle by. The moons are on the near side of the rings and the planet's shadow stretches across the rings in the background.
The diameter of Dione is (700 miles across), while Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.
The Cassini spacecraft took this image in visible light with its narrow-angle camera on Sept. 16, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Dione.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Crescent Saturn is girded by its dark belt of ice in this marvelous portrait of the planet and the "dark" side of its rings. This is the unlit side of the rings, where sunlight filters feebly through the lanes of particles.
This view is a mosaic of two images. No data were taken to fill in the missing block in the upper left quadrant, and the inner part of the rings is cut off there.
This view was acquired from about 4 degrees above the ringplane.
The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 727 nanometers on Nov. 6, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 148 degrees. Image scale is 77 kilometers (48 miles) per pixel.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
High-resolution Cassini images show an astonishing level of structure in Saturn's Cassini Division, including two ringlets that were not seen in NASA Voyager spacecraft images 25 years ago.
This view was taken with the sun almost directly behind Saturn and its rings, a viewing geometry in which microscopic ring particles brighten substantially. The image shows the diffuse new ringlet in the Cassini Division as the brightest feature in that region.
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 15, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 15 degrees above the ringplane. The phase angle, or sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle, was 179 degrees. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini looks up from beneath the ringplane to spot Prometheus and Atlas orbiting between Saturn's A and F rings.
Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) across. Atlas is 20 kilometers (12 miles) across.
The F ring displays its characteristic clumps, while scientists are watching diligently for signs of tiny, embedded moons. Prometheus is responsible for some of the clumpy structure in the F ring.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 28, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
From beneath the ringplane, the Cassini spacecraft takes stock of Saturn's southern skies and peeks through the rings and beyond their shadows at the northern latitudes.
The image was taken by the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light. This type of infrared filter view allows Cassini's cameras to see through the planet's overlying haze and observe fine detail in its ever-moving cloud bands.
The image was obtained on Feb. 3, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 121 kilometers (75 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Prometheus dips into the inner F ring at its farthest point from Saturn in its orbit, creating a dark gore and a corresponding bright streamer. Gores created during previous apoapsis (the name for the farthest point in an orbit) passes, are seen above. The older gores are farther behind the moon in its orbit of Saturn.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 31 degrees above the ringplane. Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 1, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The moons Pan (near center) and Daphnis (lower center) cruise through the Encke and Keeler gaps, respectively.
The edge waves used to discover Daphnis can be seen here as the brightening on either side of the moon. And although the edge waves Pan raises in the Encke gap are not visible here, the wakes caused by Pan's disturbance of the rings are clearly visible.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 20, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.195 million kilometers (742,000 miles) from Pan and at a Sun-Pan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 29 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10529: Making Waves sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini looked toward the night side of Saturn to spy the darkened orb of Mimas barely visible here near the center of the image hugging the planet's shadow. To the left of Mimas are several bright features in the faint D ring.
The innermost of Saturn's medium-sized icy moons, Mimas, is 397 kilometers (247 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 7, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.9 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Mimas and 4 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Saturn. The Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle is 161 degrees. Image scale is 24 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel on Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Dark ring shadows adorn the northern hemisphere of Saturn. The shadows have loosened their grip on the north compared to when Cassini arrived in 2004 (see PIA06177), and presently continue to slide farther south.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 5 degrees above the ringplane.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 22, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (839,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 77 kilometers (48 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09793: Sliding Shadows sur le site de la NASA.
Several spiral density waves in Saturn's A ring are seen in this detailed view. There is a grainy texture visible between the brightness peaks in the most prominent wave. Scientists think the graininess might be indicative of self-gravitating clumps of material that are formed by the spiraling wave.
Downward in the image represents the direction toward Saturn. This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 42 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 8, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 300,000 kilometers (200,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 27 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (4,580 feet) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A sliver of "ringshine" pierces the darkness of Saturn's night side.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 58 degrees above the ringplane.
The ring shadows fall into darkness beyond the terminator in the north. South of the equator, a dim glow brightens the darkened globe. This light, called ringshine, comes from sunlight reflected off the sunward side of the expansive rings (the opposite face of the ringplane from this perspective). The effect is pronounced in the eclipse view PIA08329.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 19, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 851,000 kilometers (529,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 48 kilometers (30 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09912: Splinter of Light sur le site de la NASA.
Any doubts about the grandeur of Saturn's rings will be dissolved by sweeping portraits like this one from Cassini. There is a magnificent level of detail visible in this view, which captures almost the entire ring system -- from the thin, outer F ring to faint narrow features in the D ring, interior to the C ring. Along the ringplane, differences in brightness reveal the varying concentrations of the particles that comprise the rings.
Cassini is viewing the rings from below. The portion of the rings near the top of the image is closer to the spacecraft, and the portion near the bottom is farther away.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on Oct. 29, 2004, at a distance of about 836,000 (519,000 miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 742 nanometers. The image scale is 46 kilometers (29 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
From about a degree above the unilluminated side of Saturn's ringplane, Cassini spies two of the small moons that skirt the edges of the planet's rings.
Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is seen at center right between the A and F rings. Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) appears exterior to the F ring, above center right.
The group of little, irregularly shaped, icy bodies that hug the rings—so much smaller than the great icy moons like Tethys, Enceladus, etc.—is sometimes referred to as the "ring rocks."
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 17, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Epimetheus and 1.2 million kilometers (760,000 miles) from Atlas. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel on Epimetheus and 7 kilometers (4 miles) on Atlas.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09836: Ring Rocks sur le site de la NASA.
This map of Saturn's F ring illustrates how the ghostly strands flanking the core of this contorted ring, when examined in detail, actually form a spiral structure wound like a spring around the planet.
Two identical maps of the F ring have been joined, side-by-side, to show the nature of the spiral more clearly. The F ring has been mapped as if it were a circular feature, so that its eccentricity is not apparent here.
The spiral strand's path across the image begins about 350 kilometers (217 miles) inward of the F ring core at about 200 degrees longitude (bottom axis) on the right map, and moves closer to the ring core toward the left, wrapping over onto the map on the left. The strand appears to cross the ring core around 100 degrees longitude, after which the distance between the strand and the ring core increases to the left and can be followed, moving even farther outward, wrapping around to the rightmost boundary of the right-hand map and continuing to the left.
Other spiraling structures seen in the main rings of Saturn, the density and bending waves, are initiated by the gravitational influence of an orbiting moon. Density and bending waves move across the rings because of the way that relatively massive ring particles exert a gravitational influence on each other and can all move together.
In contrast, the F ring spiral structure contains very little mass and appears to originate from material somehow episodically ejected from the core of the F ring and then sheared out due to the different orbital speeds followed by the constituent particles.
Scientists have speculated that the spiral may be a consequence of moons crossing the F ring and spreading its particles around.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Seen here is the end result of the process that occurs every time the moon Prometheus closely approaches Saturn's F ring. The moon cuts a dark channel in the ring's inner edge that then shears out over successive orbits, giving the ring the unique appearance seen here.
Of particular interest in this view is the faint fan of small-scale gores seen at the ring's ansa. These features are left of center in the frame, immediately to the left of a bright clump there. The small gores are formed in the same manner as the larger ones created by Prometheus: a small moonlet orbiting in the F ring forms gores because of its eccentric orbit relative to the overall F ring.
This process is described in detail, along with a movie of Prometheus creating one of the streamer/channel features, in PIA08937.
The view is toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 3 degrees below the ringplane.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 25, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 624,000 kilometers (388,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 23 degrees. Image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09782: Gores in the Strands sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft snapped this Saturn portrait from the distance of Iapetus, just before beginning its close encounter with the two-toned moon.
Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) is visible against the clouds of the northern hemisphere. Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) stands out as a bright speck against the dark ring shadows, near center.
Enceladus is not pictured here, although it casts its shadow upon the northern hemisphere, to the left of Rhea.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 4 degrees below the ringplane. The rings disappear into the planet's shadow at right.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 3.3 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 195 kilometers (121 miles) per pixel on the planet.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Specially designed Cassini orbits place Earth and Cassini on opposite sides of Saturn's rings, a geometry known as occultation. Cassini conducted the first radio occultation observation of Saturn's rings on May 3, 2005.
Three simultaneous radio signals of 0.94, 3.6, and 13 centimeter wavelengths (Ka-, X-, and S-bands) were sent from Cassini through the rings to Earth. The observed change of each signal as Cassini moved behind the rings provided a profile of the distribution of ring material as a function of distance from Saturn, or an optical depth profile.
This simulated image was constructed from the measured optical depth profiles. It depicts the observed ring structure at about 10 kilometers (6 miles) in resolution. Color is used to represent information about ring particle sizes in different regions based on the measured effects of the three radio signals.
Shades of purple, primarily over most of the inner ring (ring B) and the inner portion of the next ring (ring A), indicate regions where there is a lack of particles less than 5 centimeters (about 2 inches) in diameter. Green and blue shades indicate regions where there are particles of sizes smaller than 5 centimeters (2 inches) and 1 centimeter (less than one third of an inch), respectively, primarily in outer ring A and within most of ring C. From other evidence in the radio observations, all ring regions appear to be populated by a broad range of particle size distribution that extends to boulder sizes (several to many meters or yards across).
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radio science team is based at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information on the radio science team visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments-cassini-rss.cfm.
These views, taken two hours apart, demonstrate the dramatic variability in the structure of Saturn's intriguing F ring.
In the image at the left, ringlets in the F ring and Encke Gap display distinctive kinks, and there is a bright patch of material on the F ring's inner edge. Saturn's moon Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is shown here, partly illuminated by reflected light from the planet.
At the right, Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) orbits ahead of the radial striations in the F ring, called "drapes" by scientists. The drapes appear to be caused by successive passes of Prometheus as it reaches the greatest distance (apoapse) in its orbit of Saturn. Also in this image, the outermost ringlet visible in the Encke Gap displays distinctive bright patches.
These views were obtained from about three degrees below the ring plane.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 29, 2005, when Cassini was about 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
Voir l'image PIA07558: Two F Ring Views sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft spies Pan speeding through the Encke Gap, its own private path around Saturn.
Illumination is from the lower left here, revealing about half of Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) in sunlight.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 35 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (600,000 miles) from Pan. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The dark shadow of Saturn’s southern hemisphere spreads across the planet's rings all the way to the Encke gap. Close inspection of the shadow's left-most extension reveals the penumbra, the blurry region in which ring features are only partially illuminated. A viewer within the penumbra would see the Sun partially eclipsed by Saturn.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on June 21, 2004, from a distance of 6.3 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to visible green light. The image scale is 37 kilometers (23 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft probes Saturn's atmosphere, peering beneath the hazes that obscure the flowing cloud bands at visible wavelengths. Brighter areas in this view generally represent features higher in the atmosphere than darker areas. (The dark region at far right is, of course, on the planet's night side.)
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings and was acquired from about 38 degrees above the ringplane. It was taken a few minutes after PIA09828.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 2, 2008 using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light centered at 728 and 705 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 929,000 kilometers (577,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 52 kilometers (32 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09831: Probing the North sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft looks upward from beneath the ringplane to spy the moon Mimas floating above the shadowed cloudtops of the Saturnian north.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 5 degrees below the ringplane. Mimas is 397 kilometers (247 miles) across. The rings themselves produce the shadows which, from this perspective, appear to overlay.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 18, 2007, using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 20 kilometers (13 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Specially designed Cassini orbits place Earth and Cassini on opposite sides of Saturn's rings, a geometry known as occultation. Cassini conducted the first radio occultation observation of Saturn's rings on May 3, 2005.
Three simultaneous radio signals of 0.94, 3.6, and 13 centimeter wavelengths (Ka-, X-, and S-bands) were sent from Cassini through the rings to Earth. The observed change of each signal as Cassini moved behind the rings provided a profile of the distribution of ring material and an optical depth profile.
This simulated image was constructed from the measured optical depth profiles of the Cassini Division and ring A. It depicts the observed structure at about 10 kilometers (6 miles) in resolution. Many radial features evident across ring A, but especially exterior to the Encke and Keeler gaps (the broad and narrow black bands on the right side of the image), are wavy features called 'density waves.' They are caused by gravitational interaction with moons outside ring A.
Color is used to represent information about ring particle sizes based on the measured effects of the three radio signals. Shades of purple indicate regions where there is a lack of particles less than 5 centimeters (about 2 inches) in diameter. Green and blue shades indicate regions where there are particles of sizes smaller than 5 centimeters (2 inches) and 1 centimeter (less than one third of an inch), respectively.
Note the gradual increase in shades of green towards the outer edge of ring A. It indicates gradual increase in the abundance of 5-centimeter (2-inch) and smaller particles. Frequent collisions between large ring particles in this dynamically active region likely fragment the larger particles into more numerous smaller ones.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radio science team is based at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information on the radio science team visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments-cassini-rss.cfm.
Daphnis, the tiny moon that inhabits the Keeler Gap in the outer edge of Saturn's A ring, is captured here in remarkable detail with its entourage of waves.
The edge waves are especially bright in places where ring material piles up, a characteristic that has been seen in computer simulations of the interactions between gap-embedded moons and the surrounding ring particles.
The 7 kilometer-wide (4.3 mile) moon appears to have an unusual shape in this image. It is not simply a bright dot, but instead exhibits a dimmer component immediately to its left. Though it is far from certain, this component may be ring material caught in the act of accreting onto Daphnis, a process currently being studied by imaging scientists.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2006, at a distance of approximately 422,000 kilometers (262,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The shepherd moon, Pandora, is seen here alongside the narrow F ring that it helps maintain. Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.
Cassini obtained this view from about four degrees above the ringplane. Captured here are several faint, dusty ringlets in the vicinity of the F ring core. The ringlets do not appear to be perturbed to the degree seen in the core.
The appearance of Pandora here is exciting, as the moon's complete shape can be seen, thanks to reflected light from Saturn, which illuminates Pandora's dark side. The hint of a crater is visible on the dark side of the moon.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 4, 2005, at a distance of approximately 967,000 kilometers (601,000 miles) from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 117 degrees. The image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Click on the image for movie of
Rounding the Corner
A movie sequence of Saturn's G ring over a full orbital revolution captures its single bright arc on the ring's inner edge.
The movie is composed of 70 individual narrow-angle camera images taken during a period of just over 20 hours while Cassini stared at the ring. The orbital period for particles in the center of the G ring is about 19.6 hours.
At the beginning of the sequence, the ring arc, a site of concentrated ring particles, is seen rounding the ring edge.
The arc orbits at a distance of 167,496 kilometers (104,080 miles). Itis about 250 kilometers (155 miles) wide in radius and subtends less than 60 degrees of orbital longitude. The classical position of the G ring is about 172,600 kilometers (107,250 miles) from Saturn, and the arc blends smoothly into this region. Scientists suspect that bodies trapped in this remarkably bright feature may be the source of the G ring material, driven outward from the arc by electromagnetic forces in the Saturn system.
The arc itself is likely held in place by gravitational resonances with Mimas of the type that anchor the famed arcs in Neptune's rings. There is an obvious narrow dark gap in the G ring beyond the arc. This feature is close to yet another resonance with Mimas, but no arcs are present at this locale.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 10 degrees above the ringplane. Imaging artifacts jitter within the scene, a result of the high phase angle and faintness of the G ring. Stars slide across the background from upper left to lower right.
The images in this movie were taken on Sept. 19 and 20 at a distance of approximately 2.1 to 2.2 million kilometers (1.3 to 1.4 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-G ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle that ranged from 167 to 164 degrees. Image scale is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel in the radial (outward from Saturn) direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This view shows the unlit side of Saturn's splendid rings made visible by sunlight filtering through the rings from the lit side. Light from the illuminated side of the rings brightens the night side of the planet's southern hemisphere with "ringshine" (seen here at lower right). The feeble glow from transmitted light dimly illuminates the planet's northern half.
Saturn's shadow stretches across the rings toward lower left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 477,000 kilometers (296,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 25 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft captures a spectacular view of Saturn's banded southern hemisphere and dark central polar storm, while its dazzling rings lie far beyond the horizon.
The image was taken by the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light. The image was obtained on Jan. 31, 2007 at a distance of approximately 979,000 kilometers (608,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 110 kilometers (68 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This false-color image of Saturn shows ring shadows running across the upper portion of the planet, and sunlight illuminating the lower portion of the planet.
The upper area, in the ring shadow, would be black in visible light but glows red in infrared because Saturn is warm inside. This light shines out through the clouds, giving scientists a look at some of Saturn's interesting atmospheric structure.
This image was taken on June 30, 2006, with Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer. It was constructed from images taken at wavelengths of 0.91 microns shown in blue, 2.25 microns shown in green, and at 5.01 microns shown in red. The distance from Cassini to Saturn's center in this image is 335,000 kilometers (208,159 miles).
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona where this image was produced.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team homepage is at http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu.
Variations in ring particle concentration give Saturn's brilliant rings the appearance of ripples in a pond in this close-up view. Many of the gaps and wavelike patterns elsewhere in the rings are due to the gravitational influence of Saturn's moons, but the origin of much of the structure in the B ring seen here is still unexplained.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 29, 2004, at a distance of approximately 824,000 kilometers (512,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) per pixel. The image has been slightly contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
This moody true color portrait of Saturn shows a world that can, at times, seem as serene and peaceful as it is frigid and hostile. Saturn's unlit-side rings embrace the planet while their shadows caress the northern hemisphere.
Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is a mere speck below the rings, just left of the terminator. The view was obtained from about 15 degrees above the ringplane as Cassini continued its climb to higher orbital inclinations.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The image was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 18, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 137 degrees. Image scale is 76 kilometers (47 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Immense Saturn is visible through the A ring as Pan coasts along its private corridor.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 24 degrees above the ringplane. Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) drifts through the Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 23, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Pan. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The outer edge of Saturn's A ring displays intriguing structure in this Cassini spacecraft view.
The scrambled pattern in the outer edge is not unlike the pattern Cassini recently imaged in the outer B-ring edge (see PIA09855).
As with the B-ring edge, the pattern could represent clumping caused by periodic compression of this ring region.
This scene looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 42 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 23, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 192,000 kilometers (119,000 miles) from the rings. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09892: Scrambled Edge sur le site de la NASA.
This image from the Cassini spacecraft shows a ghostly white streak, called a spoke, in Saturn's B ring. This is the first sighting of a spoke in nearly a year, and the first spoke seen by Cassini on the sunlit side of the rings.
It is also the first spoke seen at high phase angle -- that is, the angle formed between the sun, the rings and Cassini. In this geometry, the feature appears white (instead of black) against the rings because the very small particles comprising the spoke preferentially scatter light in the forward direction (i.e. toward Cassini), making the spoke brighter than the background rings.
The clear-filter image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 23, 2006, at a distance of approximately 692,000 kilometers (430,000 miles) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 115 degrees. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 38 kilometers (23 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Annotated ImageExaggerated Color Contrast
With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the sun's blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world.
This marvelous panoramic view was created by combining a total of 165 images taken by the Cassini wide-angle camera over nearly three hours on Sept. 15, 2006. The full mosaic consists of three rows of nine wide-angle camera footprints; only a portion of the full mosaic is shown here. Color in the view was created by digitally compositing ultraviolet, infrared and clear filter images and was then adjusted to resemble natural color.
The mosaic images were acquired as the spacecraft drifted in the darkness of Saturn's shadow for about 12 hours, allowing a multitude of unique observations of the microscopic particles that compose Saturn's faint rings.
Ring structures containing these tiny particles brighten substantially at high phase angles: i.e., viewing angles where the sun is almost directly behind the objects being imaged.
During this period of observation Cassini detected two new faint rings: one coincident with the shared orbit of the moons Janus and Epimetheus, and another coincident with Pallene's orbit. (See PIA08322 and PIA08328 for more on the two new rings.)
The narrowly confined G ring is easily seen here, outside the bright main rings. Encircling the entire system is the much more extended E ring. The icy plumes of Enceladus, whose eruptions supply the E ring particles, betray the moon's position in the E ring's left-side edge.
Interior to the G ring and above the brighter main rings is the pale dot of Earth. Cassini views its point of origin from over a billion kilometers (and close to a billion miles) away in the icy depths of the outer solar system. See PIA08324 for a similar view of Earth taken during this observation.
Small grains are pushed about by sunlight and electromagnetic forces. Hence, their distribution tells much about the local space environment.
A second version of the mosaic view is presented here in which the color contrast is greatly exaggerated. In such views, imaging scientists have noticed color variations across the diffuse rings that imply active processes sort the particles in the ring according to their sizes.
Looking at the E ring in this color-exaggerated view, the distribution of color across and along the ring appears to be different between the right side and the left. Scientists are not sure yet how to explain these differences, though the difference in phase angle between right and left may be part of the explanation. The phase angle is about 179 degrees on Saturn.
The main rings are overexposed in a few places.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 15 degrees above the ringplane.
Cassini was approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn when the images in this mosaic were taken. Image scale on Saturn is about 260 kilometers (162 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Annotated Version
Click on the image for full view
Details of Saturn's icy rings are visible in this sweeping view from Cassini of the planet's glorious ring system.
This natural color mosaic, taken from 10 degrees below the illuminated side of the rings, shows, from left to right, radially outward from Saturn, the C ring (with its Colombo and Maxwell gaps); the B ring and the Cassini division beyond, with the intervening Huygens gap; the A ring (with its Encke and Keeler gaps); and, on the far right, the narrow F ring. The total span covers approximately 65,700 kilometers (40,800 miles).
Although it is too faint to be seen here, the D ring is located just to the left of the C ring.
It is interesting to compare this view with PIA08389, which shows the unilluminated side of the rings. The difference in brightness of the B ring relative to the other rings is striking. When illuminated directly by the sun, the B ring appears brighter than the adjacent A and C rings; however, when viewing the unlit side of the B ring, the A and C rings appear brighter. This phenomenon occurs because the density of the B ring is greater than that of the A or C rings.
The mosaic was constructed from 45 narrow-angle-camera images—15 separate sets of red, green and blue images—taken over the course of about four hours, as Cassini scanned across the rings.
The images in this view were obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Nov. 26, 2008, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 28 degrees. Image scale in the radial (horizontal) direction is about 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA11142: A Full Sweep of Saturn's Rings sur le site de la NASA.
Dione looms large before the rings of Saturn.
Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) can be spotted to the lower left of the larger moon, peeking out from behind the rings.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up and rotated 25 degrees to the right. The view is toward the sunlit side of the rings from less than a degree below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 22, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 695,000 kilometers (432,000 miles) from Dione. Image scale is 4 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This Cassini image captures three of Saturn's ring moons in a single view. From left to right, the moons seen in this view are Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across), Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) and Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across).
The ring moons are an interesting study in the dynamics of orbiting bodies. Prometheus and Pandora shepherd Saturn's thin F ring, whose particles orbit between the pair. Prometheus has been observed 'stealing' material from the F ring in images from Cassini. The orbit of Janus is within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of the orbit of another moon, slightly smaller Epimetheus. Janus and Epimetheus exchange positions in their orbital path (inner to outer) every four years.
Saturn's bright, icy rings are overexposed in this scene. However, this has allowed us to see material present within the Cassini Division (near the lower right).
This view is from Cassini's vantage point beneath the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 29, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 20 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
>The "opposition effect" can be seen in this image of Saturn's B ring. The bright spot occurs where the angle between the spacecraft, the Sun and the rings is near zero. Studies of the opposition effect on Saturn's rings may help scientists constrain some of the properties of ring particles, such as their sizes and spatial distribution.
Another recently released image from Cassini also shows this interesting effect of viewing geometry (see PIA07543).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 26, 2005, at a distance of approximately 478,000 kilometers (297,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
This strikingly crisp view shows Atlas heading into Saturn's shadow at upper left. The moon's basic, elongated shape is easy to detect here.
(See PIA08233 for a different perspective on Atlas.)
Above Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) in the image, a bright clump in the F ring also heads toward the darkness.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 30 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Atlas. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Multiple faint, streamer-like objects can be seen in this high resolution Cassini spacecraft view of the F ring's bright core.
The regular spacing of some of the features extending from the core indicates that they could all be produced by the perturbing effect of a single body as it passes close by. Scientists are examining Cassini images closely in an attempt to determine whether there are tiny moonlets -- or perhaps transient clumps of material -- orbiting Saturn near the F ring core. The researchers believe the streamer features seen here could be caused by a related phenomenon to that by which Prometheus produces streamers in the F ring (see PIA07582).
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 339,000 kilometers (211,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 69 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Prometheus pulls away from an encounter with Saturn's F ring, leaving behind a reminder of its passage.
Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) approaches closely to the F ring once during each circuit around Saturn, disturbing the orbits of the small particles in the ring and creating a streamer of material that then shears out, following the moon as it speeds off.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 37 degrees above the ringplane. Prometheus is brightly lit by the Sun on one side and lit more modestly by Saturn's reflected light on the other side.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 18, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 87 degrees. Image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This mosaic of 15 Cassini images of Saturn's F ring shows how the moon Prometheus creates a gore in the ring once every 14.7 hours, as it approaches and recedes from the F ring on its eccentric orbit.
The individual images have been processed to make the ring appear as if it has been straightened, making it easier to see the ring's structure. The mosaic shows a region 147,000 kilometers (91,000 miles) along the ring (horizontal direction in the image); this represents about 60 degrees of longitude around the ring. The region seen here is about 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) across (vertical direction). The first and last images in the mosaic were taken approximately 2.5 hours apart.
Each dark channel, or "gore," is clearly visible across more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) of the ring and is due to the gravitational effect of Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across), even though the moon does not enter the F ring. The channels have different tilts because the ring particles closer to Prometheus (overexposed, stretched, and just visible at the bottom right of the image) move slower with respect to the moon than those farther away. This causes the channels to shear with time, their slopes becoming greater, and gives the overall visual impression of drapes of ring material. The channels at the right are the youngest and have near-vertical slopes, while those at the left are the oldest and have near-horizontal slopes.
This phenomenon has not previously been detected in any other planetary ring system, but computer simulations of the system prove that the disturbance is caused by a simple gravitational interaction. The eccentric orbit of Prometheus is gradually moving so that the moon will eventually come even closer in its closest approach to the eccentric F ring. Scientists calculate that its perturbations of the F ring will reach a maximum in December 2009.
The images in this mosaic were taken using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 13, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. The resolution in the original images, before reprojection, was 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The sharp outer boundary of Saturn's B ring, which is the bright ring region seen to the right in this image, is maintained by a strong resonance with the moon Mimas. For every two orbits made by particles at this distance from Saturn, Mimas makes one orbit. The moon's repeated gravitational tugs force ring particles away from this region.
The dark region is called the Huygens gap and it includes the bright, eccentric Huygens ringlet, also visible here near center.
See PIA06535 for a wide-field view of this region.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 23, 2006. The view was obtained from 15 degrees beneath the ringplane and at a distance of approximately 282,000 kilometers (175,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Off the shoulder of giant Saturn, a bright pinpoint marks the location of the ring moon Atlas (image center). Shadows cast by the C ring adorn the planet at upper right.
The thin boundary of Saturn's high haze layer can be seen immediately to the left of the planet's limb, near center.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane. Atlas is 32 kilometers (20 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 17, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
Voir l'image PIA08996: Sojourn at Saturn sur le site de la NASA.
This image shows in superb detail the region in Saturn's rings known as the Encke Gap. It was taken by the narrow angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft after successful entry into Saturn's orbit. The view shows the sunlit side of the rings.
The Cassini spacecraft observes a gathering of three moons near the rings of Saturn.
Largest in the scene, Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) sits on the side of the rings nearer to Cassini. Oblong Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) lies on the distant side of the narrow F ring. Less obvious is tiny Daphnis (7 kilometers, or 4.3 miles across), which is made easier to spot by the waves it creates in the edges of the narrow Keeler Gap. Daphnis appears directly below the eastern limb of Mimas.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about a degree above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 3, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Mimas. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09768: Ring Tableau sur le site de la NASA.
As northern winter ends on Saturn and the Cassini spacecraft's view of the north pole improves, the swirls and eddies visible until now only in the south are gradually coming into view in the northern hemisphere.
Scientists will be looking for the north polar hexagon that was seen by Voyager. The hexagon was a jet stream, deflected by a storm into a six-lobed pattern, that circled the planet at 76 degrees north latitude. This picture shows extensive storm activity and gives scientists hope that the hexagon is still there.
The shadows of the rings of Saturn cut across the lower part of the image.
The image was taken in polarized infrared light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.2 million kilometers (2 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 37 kilometers (23 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
These two images, taken about eight minutes apart, show clump-like structures and a great deal of dust in Saturn's ever-changing F ring. The images show an object-interior to and detached from the bright core of the F ring that appears to be breaking up into discrete clumps.
Cassini scientists have been monitoring clumps in the F ring for more than two years now, trying to understand whether these represent small permanent moonlets or transient aggregates of material. (See PIA07716.)
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 35 degrees above the ringplane.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The two prominent dark gaps in Saturn's A ring contain small embedded moons and a host of other intriguing features.
Here, three unique ringlets are visible in the Encke gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide). The innermost ringlet (topmost here) is faint but continuous. The center ringlet brightens substantially toward upper left and displays a few slight kinks. This ringlet is coincident with the orbit of Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across). The outermost ringlet is discontinuous, with two bright regions visible.
The narrower Keeler gap (42 kilometers, or 26 miles wide) hosts the moon Daphnis (7 kilometers, or 4.3 miles across, not in this image), which raises waves in the gap edges as it orbits Saturn (see PIA07809).
At lower left, faint ringlets flanking the bright F ring core are visible. These features were found by the Cassini spacecraft to be arranged into a spiral arm structure that winds around the planet like a spring. The spiral may be caused by tiny moonlets or clumps of material that have smashed through the F ring core and liberated material.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 23 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 11, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 151 degrees. Image scale is about 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft delivers this stunning vista showing small, battered Epimetheus and smog-enshrouded Titan, with Saturn's A and F rings stretching across the scene.
The prominent dark region visible in the A ring is the Encke Gap, in which the moon Pan and several narrow ringlets reside. Moon-driven features that mark the A ring are easily seen to the left and right of the Encke Gap. The Encke Gap is 325 kilometers (200 miles) wide. Pan is 26 kilometers (16 miles) across.
In an optical illusion, the narrow F ring, outside the A ring, appears to fade across the disk of Titan. A couple of bright clumps can be seen in the F ring.
Epimetheus is 116 kilometers (72 miles) across and giant Titan is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 28, 2006, at a distance of approximately 667,000 kilometers (415,000 miles) from Epimetheus and 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Titan. The image captures the illuminated side of the rings. The image scale is 4 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel on Epimetheus and 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Titan.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Tiny, dust-sized particles in Saturn's rings become much easier to see at high phase angle -- the angle formed by the Sun, the rings and the spacecraft. The brightest ring is the F ring; the next feature to the left is the outer edge of the A ring. Inward of that, and very bright, are the ringlets in the Encke gap.
Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) is easy to spot just right of the outer F ring edge. Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across), however, is quite a bit harder to make out; it is the dark spot located directly to the left of Epimetheus, above the gap between the A and F rings.
Within the space between the A and F rings there are two faint rings seen previously by the Cassini spacecraft. The inner faint ring (called R/2004 S1) coincides with the orbit of Atlas. The outer one forms the inner boundary of the orbit of Prometheus.
The narrow G ring is visible above and below the bright F ring.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 15, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Epimetheus and 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Janus. The view was acquired at a Sun-Epimetheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 164 degrees. Image scale is 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This high-resolution view shows incredible detail within a spiral density wave within Saturn's A ring.
A spiral density wave is a spiral-shaped massing of particles that tightly winds many times around the planet. These waves decrease in wavelength with increasing distance from the planet.
The wave that covers a broad strip across the center of the image is created by a gravitational resonance with the moon Janus. For every sixth orbit of the ring particles at this radius from Saturn, Janus makes five orbits, meaning that the moon is continually providing a gravitational kick to particles in this region of the rings.
A couple of the peaks in the broad Janus-created wave appear bunched together, possibly owing to Janus' orbit being changed when it swaps places with its co-orbital moon Epimetheus (see PIA08170).
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 34 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 21, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 170,000 kilometers (106,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 669 meters (2,194 feet) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10452: Structure in the Spiral sur le site de la NASA.
This is an artist's concept of Saturn's rings and major icy moons.
Saturn's rings make up an enormous, complex structure. From edge-to-edge, the ring system would not even fit in the distance between Earth and the Moon. The seven main rings are labeled in the order in which they were discovered. From the planet outward, they are D, C, B, A, F, G and E.
The D ring is very faint and closest to Saturn. The main rings are A, B and C. The outermost ring, easily seen with Earth-based telescopes, is the A ring. The Cassini Division is the largest gap in the rings and separates the B ring from the A ring. Just outside the A ring is the narrow F ring, shepherded by tiny moons, Pandora and Prometheus. Beyond that are two much fainter rings named G and E. Saturn's diffuse E ring is the largest planetary ring in our solar system, extending from Mimas' orbit to Titan's orbit, about 1 million kilometers (621,370 miles).
The particles in Saturn's rings are composed primarily of water ice and range in size from microns to tens of meters. The rings show a tremendous amount of structure on all scales; some of this structure is related to gravitational interactions with Saturn's many moons, but much of it remains unexplained. One moonlet, Pan, actually orbits inside the A ring in a 330-kilometer-wide (200-mile) gap called the Encke Gap. The main rings (A, B and C) are less than 100 meters (300 feet) thick in most places, compared to their radial extent of 62,120 kilometers (38,600 miles). The main rings are much younger than the age of the solar system, perhaps only a few hundred million years old. They may have formed from the breakup of one of Saturn's moons or from a comet or meteor that was torn apart by Saturn's gravity.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Storms and cloud bands emerge from beneath Saturn's obscuring hazes in this infrared view.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 20 degrees below the ringplane. The inner rings partly obscure the planet at top.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 12, 2005 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn. The monochrome view uses a combination of images taken using spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of light centered at 728, 752 and 890 nanometers. Image scale is 170 kilometers (105 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This is one of the first images taken of Saturn's F ring by the Cassini spacecraft after it successfully entered Saturn's orbit. It was taken by the spacecraft's narrow angle camera and shows the sunlit side of the rings.
Prometheus is caught here, in the act of pulling a new streamer out of the F ring's inner edge. Trailing behind (above the moon in the image) are previous dark gores that Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) has created.
See PIA08397 for a thorough description of how the moon creates these features.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 5 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 14, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 67 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09803: Sculpting the F Ring sur le site de la NASA.
Click on image for larger annotated version
Recent Cassini images show arcs of material co-orbiting with the Saturnian moons Anthe and Methone.
Arrows indicate the positions of Anthe, at top left, and Methone, at bottom right. Micrometeoroid impacts on the moons are the likely source of the arc material.
Cassini imaging scientists believe the process that maintains the Anthe and Methone arcs is similar to that which maintains the arc in the G ring (see PIA08327). The general brightness of the image (along with the faint horizontal banding pattern) results from the long exposure time of 15 seconds required to capture the extremely faint ring arc and the processing needed to enhance its visibility (which also enhances the digital background noise in the image). The image was digitally processed to remove most of the background noise. This view looks toward the un-illuminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 29, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Anthe and 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Methone. Image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Anthe and 13 kilometers (8 miles) on Methone.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA11102: Anthe and Methone Arcs sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft captures a view showing two of Saturn's moons and their gravitational effects on nearby rings.
At top, Daphnis (8 kilometers, or 5 miles across at its widest point) streaks through the Keeler Gap, with its ever-present edge waves. At center, Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across at its widest point) pulls away from a recent encounter with the F ring. A bright background star is visible below the F ring.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 41 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 8, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (788,000 miles) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 53 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09902: Ringcraft sur le site de la NASA.
High-resolution Cassini images show an astonishing level of structure in Saturn's Cassini Division, including two ringlets that were not seen in NASA Voyager spacecraft images 25 years ago.
This image shows a new ringlet at right, just interior to the bright outer edge of the Cassini Division. This diffuse structure is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) wide.
The second new ringlet is roughly at center in this view. It is a very narrow feature, about 6 kilometers (4 miles) wide, between the familiar broad bands of material in the Cassini Division, and displays a great deal of variation in brightness along its length. (We include here an annotated version of this image indicating the new rings.)
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2006, at a distance of approximately 414,000 kilometers (257,000 miles) from Saturn. This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 17 degrees below the ringplane. The phase angle, or sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle, was 96 degrees. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The contrast is sharp between the outer portion of the A ring edge and the ring's main body. One explanation for this is that the outer A ring region contains smaller particles (around 1 centimeter or 0.4 inches in radius) than the main rings, allowing more opportunities for light scattering before it scatters toward the camera.
Ringlets in the Encke Gap and flanking the bright F ring core are clearly visible here.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 4 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers on Nov. 7, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 140 degrees. Image scale on the NASA/JPL/Space Science Institutesky at the distance of Saturn is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Encke Gap, the broad, vertical dark band running down the center of this image, is maintained by the small moon Pan (not pictured). Pan also shepherds three ringlets, all of which appear here as faint, narrow bands within the Encke Gap.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 19, 2008 at a distance of approximately 271,000 kilometers (168,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 138 degrees. Image scale is about 1 kilometer per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10554: Not-Quite-Empty Gap sur le site de la NASA.
The three bright, finger-like jets of material seen here suggest that a small object has collided with the core of Saturn's F ring.
Cassini spacecraft imaging scientists have shown that the F-ring shepherd moon Prometheus influences the structure of the ring in two ways: by creating streamer-channel features as it closely approaches (and partially passes into) the ring (see PIA08397) and by perturbing the orbits of small objects within the F ring region which then exert their own influence on nearby ring particles, as seen here.
These small, embedded objects could be temporary clumps of particles, but scientists think at least one of the objects could be a more permanent moonlet.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 40 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 20, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 685,000 kilometers (426,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 40 degrees. Image scale is about 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10470: Evidence of Collision sur le site de la NASA.
In this image of the F ring, taken shortly after its ring particles encountered the shepherd moon Prometheus, the disruption to the ring caused by the moon is evident.
The bright core of the ring and its neighboring faint strands show kinks where the moon's gravity has altered the orbits of the ring particles.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 23, 2008 at a distance of approximately 444,000 kilometers (276,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 88 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10528: Ring Disrupted sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini images have revealed the presence of previously unseen faint rings in some of the gaps in Saturn's rings--possible indicators of small yet-unseen moons.
Image A is a contrast-stretched view of the 270-kilometer-wide (170 mile) Maxwell gap in Saturn's C ring. The right arrow points to the optically thick Maxwell ringlet; the left arrow points to the new diffuse ring seen inside it.
Image B is a view of the approximately 350-kilometer-wide (220 miles) Huygens gap, between the outer edge of Saturn's B ring (on the left) and the dark bands (on the right) in the Cassini division. The right arrow points to the optically thick Huygens ring; the left arrow points to the new diffuse ring inside it.
Image C is a view of the ringlets inside the Encke gap. Some of these had been seen by NASA's Voyager spacecraft, but this contrast-enhanced Cassini lit-side image shows the presence of three major ringlets and a rather tenuous one.
The center ringlet, which in this image has the highest optical depth among the ringlets, is coincident with Pan's orbit. This finding, along with observed variations in brightness along the ringlet, implies that accumulations of particles in the ringlet are maintained in special orbits that prevent them from colliding with Pan.
In Image D, which is a composite of several wide angle images taken of the lit-side of the rings after orbit insertion, there is clear indication of material extending about 400 kilometers (250 miles) beyond the edge of Saturn's overexposed A ring (on the right), as well as two diffuse rings: a 300-kilometer-wide (190 mile) ring of material, R/2004 S1, in the orbit of Atlas (left-most arrow) and another ring, R/2004 S2, comparable to the Atlas ring and immediately interior to Prometheus's orbit (right-most arrow). These rings had been reported earlier and are comparable to the jovian ring. Prometheus's orbit is elliptical, and brings the moon as close to Saturn as the outer edge of R/2004 S2 and as far away from the planet as the inner sharp boundary of Saturn's F ring. These observations indicate that Prometheus has swept material from the region occupied by its orbit.
It is not clear yet whether the origin of all these low-optical depth ringlets is the same. The association of the Atlas ring with Atlas and the main Encke ringlet with Pan would suggest that these rings derive from their associated moon. In other cases, a ring may exist because the material (or small parent bodies within it) are shepherded by a larger moon also present in the gap. The particles in many or all of these diffuse ringlets may have substantial fractions of micrometer-sized dust, implying that non-gravitational forces also may affect the ringlets' dynamics. In any case, the presence of narrow, diffuse ringlets in gaps like Maxwell and Huygens, along with the major Maxwell and Huygens ringlets, and the additional narrow ringlets in the Encke gap, suggests that there may be yet unseen moonlets in these gaps.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
>The Cassini spacecraft captures an intriguing feature in the perturbed core of Saturn's F ring.
The feature is similar in appearance to the one captured in PIA08290.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 32 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 31, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 63 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09826: F Ring Knot sur le site de la NASA.
Dione is partly occulted by Saturn's rings in this nearly edge-on view, taken from less than a tenth of a degree above the ringplane. The side of the rings nearer to the Cassini spacecraft was masked by Saturn's shadow at the time and appears dark.
Bright, wispy fractures on Dione's trailing hemisphere curl around the horizon. Sunlit terrain seen on Dione (1,126 kilometers, 700 miles across) is on the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere. North is up.
The image was taken in infrared light (centered at 752 nanometers) with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 3, 2005 at a distance of approximately 2.5 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 109 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.Three of Saturn's closest-orbiting moons are captured here, rounding the rings.
From innermost to outermost are Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across), Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) and Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across).
The F ring displays a double-banded structure here, along with its usual squiggles and kinks. Near right, a faint ringlet can be observed within the Encke Gap.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 4 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 6, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.9 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 17 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini imaging scientists use special images like this one, which shows the far side of Saturn's rings disappearing behind the planet's outer atmosphere, to probe the vertical structure of Saturn's high altitude haze.
This image was acquired from above Saturn's ring plane, and thus shows the unlit side of the rings. From this perspective, the dark areas correspond to dense regions of the rings where little light penetrates; the brighter ring sections are less dense areas that light can pass through. Here, the bright, outer ring is the A Ring, and the gap between the two visible rings is the densest part of the B ring. The inner, somewhat fainter ring is the outer part of the C ring grading into the inner B Ring. The view is toward the night side of Saturn.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 11, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (618,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of three to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Two of Saturn's moons, Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across), are seen here shepherding the planet's narrow F-ring. Prometheus overtakes Pandora in orbit around Saturn about every 25 days. Slightly above the pair and to the right is another moon, Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across). The image was taken with the narrow angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft on May 1, 2004, at a distance of 31.4 million kilometers (19.5 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 187 kilometers (116 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified and greatly contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Lit by reflected light from Saturn, Enceladus appears to hover above the gleaming rings, its well-defined ice particle jets spraying a continuous hail of tiny ice grains. The fine particles coat the moon in a mantle as white as fresh snow and populate the torus, or doughnut-shaped E ring in which Enceladus resides.
Beyond Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across), the fine particles in Saturn's other rings also glow brilliantly in scattered light in this viewing geometry. Running horizontally across the center of the image, between Enceladus and the dazzlingly bright F ring, are two faint rings -- kin of the E ring. These are the G ring (top) and the recently discovered ring designated R/2006 S1 (bottom), which is also unofficially known as the Janus/Epimetheus ring.
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 22, 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.303 million kilometers (810,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 160 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks down from a high-inclination orbit to spot two of Saturn's ring moons.
Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across at its widest point) leads a train of dark gores in the narrow F ring. Farther from Saturn lies Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles across at its widest point), which sits in its own faint ring—invisible here but clearly seen in PIA08328.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 62 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 19, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 740,000 kilometers (460,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 41 kilometers (25 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09905: Bird's Eye View sur le site de la NASA.
Streaks of cloud are overlain with graceful ring shadows in this view of Saturn's northern latitudes.
Structure is visible in the shadow of the A ring and Cassini Division, which widen at the highest latitudes, near lower right. The lower left half of the image does not show the blackness of space, but rather the shadow of the B ring, which is perfectly dark here.
The image was acquired from a high inclination above the planet's ring plane and looks obliquely toward the limb. (The region shown would be downward and to the left of the view presented in PIA08822.)
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers on Oct. 30, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 142 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This view shows Saturn's Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide) whose center is 133,590 kilometers (83,010 miles) from Saturn. This division in the rings is home to the small moon called Pan (20 kilometers, or 12 miles across).
The four bright bands - two on either side of the gap - are density waves generated by gravitational resonances with Prometheus and Pandora. The rest of the ring structures seen here are "wakes."
Like a placid lake surface disturbed by a boat, ring particles near the gap have their orbits perturbed by Pan's gravity, organizing themselves into wakes that stream away from the moon. The spacing of these wakes (their wavelength) increases with distance from the gap, as can be seen here.
Unlike most waves in the rings, wakes do not propagate or sustain themselves; rather, they preserve the memory of a single event (a passing of Pan in its orbit). These ripples are surprisingly persistent. In this image, for example, Pan is 120 degrees farther around the planet from this location, and the wakes here were generated as long as four months before the image was taken. Scientists are working to revise models of how ring wakes evolve using data from Cassini.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 332,000 kilometers (206,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA07533: Resonant Effects sur le site de la NASA.
Janus and Epimetheus continue to separate, following their orbital swap in January 2006. Until 2010, Janus will remain the innermost of the pair, whose orbits around Saturn are separated by only about 50 kilometers (31 miles) on average.
Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) appears just right of the bright A ring ansa, or edge, while Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is seen near upper right. (See PIA08170 for a closer view of these dancing moons.)
The faint F ring extends across the image; Janus appears directly between its near and far edges.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 16, 2006, at a distance of approximately 3.7 million kilometers (2.3 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 22 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel on Janus and Epimetheus.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's moon Pandora casts its shadow upon the F ring. Moon shadows upon the rings will become an increasingly common sight for Cassini as equinox approaches and the Sun moves northward through the ringplane.
This observation was optimized to show faint details in the F ring, leaving Pandora (81 kilometers, 50 miles across at its widest point) overexposed.
The view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 37 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 17, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 864,000 kilometers (537,000 miles) from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 48 degrees. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10479: Pandora's Shadow sur le site de la NASA.
This colorful view, taken from edge-on with the ringplane, contains four of Saturn's attendant moons. Tethys (1,071 kilometers, 665 miles across) is seen against the black sky to the left of the gas giant's limb. Brilliant Enceladus (505 kilometers, 314 miles across) sits against the planet near right. Irregular Hyperion (280 kilometers, 174 miles across) is at the bottom of the image, near left. Much smaller Epimetheus (116 kilometers, 72 miles across) is a speck below the rings directly between Tethys and Enceladus. Epimetheus casts an equally tiny shadow onto the blue northern hemisphere, just above the thin shadow of the F ring.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 24, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 116 kilometers (72 miles) per pixel on Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA08394: Moon Patrol sur le site de la NASA.
The B ring, shown here, is filled with radial structure. This image of the inner B ring was taken from the unlit side of the rings so the denser parts of the ring transmit less light and consequently appear darker here.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 21, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.198 million kilometers (745,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 26 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10521: B Ring in the Negative sur le site de la NASA.
Voyager 1 has found a 15th moon orbiting Saturn, visible near the bottom of this picture taken on Nov. 6, 1980, when the spacecraft was still 8 million kilometers (5 million miles) from Saturn. Voyager imaging team scientists discovered the moon Nov. 7, 1980, in the first of several programmed searches for new satellites of Saturn. The unique location of the 15th satellite, just 800 kilometers (500 miles) outside the outer edge of the A-ring, is especially significant in that this small body, approximately 100 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter, may be responsible for defining the outer edge of Saturn's bright ring system. The orbital period of the new satellite is approximately 14 hours, 20 minutes, the shortest orbit of any of Saturn's known satellites. The very narrow F-ring, approximately 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) outside the outer edge of the A-ring, is seen prominently in this picture. The Voyager Project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Saturn's rings divide this scene, casting graceful shadows onto the planet. Below, bright clouds hint at the turbulent world beneath the haze.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 13, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 4.1 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 24 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This rare color view of Saturn's night side shows how the rings dimly illuminate the southern hemisphere, giving it a dull golden glow. Part of the northern dark side is just visible at top -- the illumination it receives being far less than the south.
The unlit side of the rings is shown here. The portion of the rings closest to Cassini is within the dark shadow of Saturn; the bright distant portion is outside the planet's shadow.
A crescent Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) appears below the rings at left.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this color view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 2, 2006, at a distance of approximately 3.8 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Saturn and 3.5 kilometers (2.2 million miles) from Tethys. The image scale is about 23 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel on Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's shepherd moons gravitationally herd the F ring's particles into a narrow thread.
The structure seen in the inner edge of the F ring in this wide-angle view is similar to that seen in the narrow-angle view PIA09845. Here, Prometheus is inside the ring's inner edge.
Along with Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across), two background stars are visible in the image. One of the stars is seen in the middle of the F ring.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 45 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 26, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 749,000 kilometers (465,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 45 kilometers (28 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09853: Confining Moons sur le site de la NASA.
Few sights in the solar system are more strikingly beautiful than softly hued Saturn embraced by the shadows of its stately rings.
The gas planet's subtle northward gradation from gold to azure is a striking visual effect that scientists don't fully understand. Current thinking says that it may be related to seasonal influences, tied to the cold temperatures in the northern (winter) hemisphere. Despite Cassini's revelations, Saturn remains a world of mystery.
Currently, the rings' shadows shield the mid-northern latitudes from the harshest of the sun's rays. As Saturn travels around the sun in its 29-year orbit, the shadows will narrow and head southward, eventually blanketing the opposite hemisphere.
Images taken with blue, green and red spectral filters were used to create this color view, which approximates the scene as it would appear to the human eye. The view was brightened to enhance detail visible in the rings and within their shadows.
The images were obtained with the Cassini wide-angle camera from a distance of approximately 999,000 kilometers (621,000 miles) from Saturn on May 4, 2005, as the spacecraft cruised a few degrees above the ring plane. The image scale is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) per pixel on Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Encke Gap in Saturn's A ring is maintained by the presence of the moon Pan, which shares the gap with several diffuse ringlets. The scalloped appearance in the inner (left side) edge of the gap results from perturbations caused by Pan as it sweeps through the 325-kilometer (200-mile) wide lane.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 38 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 10, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 264,000 kilometers (164,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10402: Pan's Gap sur le site de la NASA.
This splendid view offers a detailed look at the faint rings within the Cassini Division as well as a rare glimpse of the Keeler gap moon, Daphnis. The small, ring embedded moon is a bright unresolved speck above center, near the outer edge of the A ring.
Discovered in Cassini images in 2005, Daphnis is a mere 7 kilometers (4 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 20, 2006, at a distance of approximately 483,000 kilometers (300,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale on the sky at the distance of Daphnis is about 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The two moons pictured here each share their orbits with other bodies.
Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across, at left) has two much smaller "Trojan" moons, Helene and Polydeuces (not seen here), that orbit 60 degrees in front of and behind it in its orbit. Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across, at right) shares its orbital path with Janus, and the two moons swap positions every few years -- one moving just a bit closer to Saturn and the other moving slightly farther away.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 28, 2007. Cassini was approximately 2.9 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Saturn when it acquired this view. Image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Dione.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Two moons of Saturn rendezvous in the Saturnian skies above the Cassini spacecraft.
Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is seen here just before gliding in front of Helene (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across), which lays 192,000 kilometers (119,000 miles) in the distance beyond the larger moon.
The limb of Mimas is flattened in the west, where the rim if the large crater Herschel lies.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 3 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 3, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Mimas and 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Helene. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel on Mimas and 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel on Helene.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Viewing Saturn's rings very close to edge-on produces some puzzling effects, as these two images of the F ring demonstrate.
The upper image was acquired from less than a tenth of a degree beneath the ringplane and shows a mysterious bulge. Such a feature has not been seen previously by the Cassini spacecraft from this angle. It is possible that, because of the very shallow viewing angle, the Cassini spacecraft's view takes a long path through the ring, making very faint material visible. It also may be that an embedded object of a kilometer or so in size stirs up the neighboring ring particles to create a bulge. Alternatively, an impact into an embedded moonlet that was covered with debris could produce a cloud like this.
Images taken by the Voyager spacecrafts showed clumps that might have been produced in these ways. Cassini's investigations will help to determine the vertical extent of such clumps and understand their origins.
The lower image was obtained from less than a hundredth of a degree beneath the ringplane. Across the center of the rings is a dark lane, giving them an appearance not unlike that of a spiral galaxy, seen edge-on.
Both images were taken using the clear spectral filters (predominantly visible light) on the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera. The images have been magnified by a factor of two.The top image was obtained at a distance of 3.6 million kilometers (2.2 million miles) from Saturn on Nov. 11, 2005 and shows wispy fractures on Dione's trailing hemisphere. The image scale is 22 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel. The bottom image was acquired at a distance of 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Saturn on Nov. 5, 2005. The image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.The opposition effect, a brightness surge that is visible on Saturn's rings when the sun is directly behind the spacecraft, is captured here as a colorful halo of light moving across Saturn's sunlit rings.
The rainbow of color seen here is actually an artifact and a by-product of the spot's movement and the way the color image was produced. Cassini acquires color images by taking sequential exposures using red, green and blue spectral filters, which are then composited together to form a color view. The bright patch traveled across the rings between exposures taken for this view, creating a series of three colorful spots showing its position at three separate moments.
See PIA08247 for more information about the opposition effect. PIA08267 shows a movie sequence of the bright spot traveling across the rings.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 9 degrees below the ringplane.
The images in this view were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 12, 2007, at a distance of approximately 523,000 kilometers (325,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 31 kilometers (19 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA08393: Rainbow on the Rings sur le site de la NASA.
With the Sun directly behind Cassini, the spacecraft spies the opposition surge in Saturn's inner A ring. The opposition effect becomes visible from this special viewing geometry. See PIA08247 for a detailed description of the effect.
This view looks toward the rings from about 11 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 2, 2006 at a distance of approximately 287,000 kilometers (178,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini stares toward the night side of Saturn, seen here on the right, as the active icy moon Enceladus glides past.
The moon's now famous icy plumes spew out of the south polar region (see PIA07758), providing a fresh supply of material for Saturn's E ring.
Enceladus is 505 kilometers (314 miles) across. Saturn's shadow stretches over the rings above the crescent moon.
The image was acquired in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 4, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Enceladus and 2.3 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. The image was taken at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 159 degrees. Image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel on Enceladus.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This view looks down onto the unlit side of Saturn's ringplane. It nicely shows a near-arm/far-arm brightness asymmetry in the B ring: The near arm of the B ring (in the lower half of the image) is notably darker from this viewing geometry than is the far arm (above).
Imaging scientists believe this to be a manifestation of the reflection of light from the disk of Saturn falling predominantly on the far arm of the rings. (At the time this image was taken, Cassini was more or less on the dark side of the planet.) As the B ring is the thickest part of Saturn's rings, it scatters less sunlight from below, and reflects more Saturn shine from above, than either the A or C rings, making the effect look more dramatic in the B ring.
Two small moons appear in this scene as well: Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is visible above and left of center and outside the A ring; Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) can be seen near upper right beyond the F ring. Between the two moons lie multiple clumps of material in the F ring.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (600,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 128 degrees. Image scale is 58 kilometers (36 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Sunlight filters through Saturn's rings in sepia tones in this artful view from the Cassini spacecraft of the dark side of the rings. Those rays from the sun directly reflected from the lit side of the rings onto the planet strike and illuminate the night-side southern hemisphere.
The densely populated B ring blocks much of the Sun's light and thus looks quite dark.
Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) is a mere sliver below left.
Unprocessed wide-angle camera images taken in a high-phase viewing geometry generally contain stray light artifacts. These have largely been removed from this image by computer image processing.
Cassini was about 3 degrees above the ringplane when this image was obtained on Sept. 6, 2006. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were taken using the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 154 degrees. Image scale is 106 kilometers (66 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A small icy world plies the space between Saturn's A and F rings.
Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is seen here, along with clumps of material in the F ring.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 13 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 29, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Atlas. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This magnified view illustrates the general orientation of the "propeller" features in Saturn's rings as they orbit the planet. The propellers are features detected in Cassini images that reveal the gravitational influence of moonlets approximately 100 meters (300 feet) in diameter.
The view is from one of the two Saturn orbit insertion images, taken on July 1, 2004, in which the propellers were discovered.
The two dashes of the propeller are oriented in the direction of orbital motion. The "leading" dash is also slightly closer to Saturn; this "radial offset" is about 300 meters (1000 feet). The unseen moonlet lies in the center of the structure.
The grainy appearance of the image is due to magnification and the fact that the propellers are very faint--just visible above the level of background noise. Consequently, the image enhancement procedures used have also enhanced the noise.
This propeller image is identified as "feature 1" in PIA07790. The original Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera image has been magnified from its original scale for presentation.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This perspective, from just beneath Saturn's ringplane, gives the rings a pointed appearance and captures a few clumps at the edge of the narrow F ring. Tethys (1,071 kilometers, 665 miles across) floats peacefully in the distance.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 12, 2006, at a distance of approximately 4.1 million kilometers (2.6 million miles) from Tethys. The image scale is 25 kilometers (16 miles) per pixel on Tethys.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The dark B ring of Saturn is highlighted here by numerous faint spokes. The two most prominent spokes are seen below and to the right of center.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 52 degrees above the ringplane. Saturn's shadow cuts across the rings at lower left. The pixelated appearance of the shadow edge results from the extreme enhancement used to make the spokes more visible.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 6, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 104 kilometers (65 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini turns its gaze toward Saturn's outer A ring to find the moon Pan coasting behind one of the thin ringlets with which it shares the Encke Gap. Pan is 26 kilometers (16 miles) across.
Understanding the influence of Saturn's moons on its immense ring system is one of the goals of the Cassini mission. The study of the icy rings includes the delicate and smokey-looking F ring, seen here toward upper right. The F ring exhibits visibly bright kinks and multiple strands here.
Arching across the center of the scene, the outermost section of the A ring is notably brighter than the ring material interior to it.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 13, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Pan.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks across the unlit ringplane as Mimas glides silently in front of Dione.
It is often difficult to tell from two-dimensional views like this where the moons are in relation to each other and Cassini. In this instance, Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is on the side of Saturn closest to Cassini and Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is on the far side of the planet.
Dione's night side is dimly lit by reflected light from Saturn. Much of the planet's sunlit side would be visible from the dark terrain seen here on Dione.
Saturn's shadow stretches across the rings at the bottom of the image.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 3, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Mimas and 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Dione. The view was obtained at a Sun-moon-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 146 degrees relative to both moons. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel on Mimas and 13 kilometers (8 miles) on Dione.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saucer-shaped Pan glides through the Encke Gap in Saturn's rings.
See PIA08405 for higher resolution views of the "saucer moons" Pan (28 kilometers, or 17 miles across at its widest point) and Atlas (30 kilometers, or 19 miles across at its widest point).
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 20 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 10, 2008 at a distance of approximately 799,000 kilometers (496,000 miles) from Pan. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10430: Encke's Moon sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's moons Janus and Prometheus look close enough to touch in this stunningly detailed view.
From just beneath the ringplane, Cassini stares at Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) on the near side of the rings and Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) on the far side. The image shows that Prometheus is more elongated than Janus.
The view takes in the Cassini Division (4,800 kilometers, or 2,980 miles wide), from its outer edge to about halfway across its width.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 29, 2006 at a distance of approximately 218,000 kilometers (135,000 miles) from Janus and 379,000 kilometers (236,000 miles) from Prometheus. Image scale is about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel on Janus and 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel on Prometheus.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini took a series of images on Sept. 9, 2006 as it watched the bright red giant star Aldebaran slip behind Saturn's rings. This type of observation is known as a stellar occultation and uses a star whose brightness is well known. As Cassini watches the rings pass in front, the star's light fluctuates, providing information about the concentrations of ring particles within the various radial features in the rings.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the outer A ring (just interior to the Encke Gap) from about 19 degrees below the ringplane. Bright Aldebaran is over exposed, creating thin vertical lines on its image.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 358,000 kilometers (223,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Shadows drape Saturn's northern hemisphere, providing a different kind of look at prominent features in the rings. From the lower left corner upward, the visible features are: the shadow of the outer B ring, followed by the wide, bright Cassini Division, then the A ring with the embedded thin, bright Encke Gap and finally the dark, narrow F ring.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 18, 2006, using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 750 nanometers, and at a distance of approximately 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft looks toward the sunlit face of Saturn's rings, whose shadows continue to slide southward on the planet toward their temporary disappearance during equinox in August 2009.
This two-frame color mosaic was created from images taken as part of a photometry observation of the rings. Photometry observations are useful for determining a host of ring particle properties.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 3 degrees below the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 22, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (728,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 66 kilometers (41 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10493: Eyes on the Rings sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's most prominent feature, its dazzling ring system, takes center stage in this stunning natural color mosaic which reveals the color and diversity present in this wonder of the solar system. Gaps, gravitational resonances and wave patterns are all present, and the delicate color variations across the system are clearly visible.
This mosaic of six images covers a distance of approximately 62,000 kilometers along the ring plane, from a radius of 74,565 kilometers to 136,780 kilometers (46,333 to 84,991 miles) from the planet's center.
This view is from Cassini's vantage point beneath the ring plane. The rings are tilted away from Cassini at an angle of about 4 degrees.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were used to create this natural color mosaic. The images were acquired using the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 12, 2004, at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles). The image scale is 10.5 kilometers (6.5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The bright, perturbed core of Saturn's F ring displays several kink-like features. The core is flanked by dimmer, smoother ringlets.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 12 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 2, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 575,000 kilometers (357,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 92 degrees. Image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09814: Subtle Kinks sur le site de la NASA.
Prometheus speeds ahead of two dark gores in the F ring's inner edge. The ring's bright core swerves and twirls in its wake.
Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) is partly lit, at right, by reflected light from Saturn.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 54 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 17, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 miles) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 107 degrees. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Janus coasts past as the Cassini spacecraft takes in a view of the unilluminated side of the rings. Bright regions within the rings appear so because they allow scattered sunlight to filter through.
This view looks toward the rings from about 3 degrees above the ringplane. The dark, relatively dense B ring lies at center, flanked by the much brighter C and A rings. The thin line of the F ring encompasses the rest. Janus at bottom right is 181 kilometers (113 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 1, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 581,000 kilometers (361,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 52 degrees at the center of this view. Image scale is 28 kilometers (17 miles) per pixel on Janus.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09771: Filtering the Sun sur le site de la NASA.
This close-up view shows an inner region of Saturn's C ring. It covers a radial location on the rings located approximately 78,000 to 80,500 kilometers (48,500 to 50,000 miles) from the center of the planet. Saturn itself has a radius of 60,330 kilometers (34,490 miles).
A bright feature, informally referred to as a "plateau," arcs across the image center. The plateau is not high in terms of elevation, but rather in terms of particle density (seen here as brightness). The density is fairly uniform within the bright band, and some five times higher than in the surrounding ring structure. Although the many plateaus in Saturn's rings appear unchanged over 25 years of observations, scientists do not know what determines their locations or maintains their sharp boundaries.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 5, 2005, at a distance of approximately 418,000 kilometers (260,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
This contrast-enhanced view shows a faint spoke in Saturn's B ring. These ghostly radial structures were imaged by the Voyager spacecraft in the 1980s. Using the Cassini spacecraft data, scientists are hoping to piece together an understanding of how these mysterious features form.
The Sun-ring-spacecraft viewing angle makes quite a difference in the spokes' appearance: they appear bright against the rings when seen at high phase angles and darker than the rings at lower phase angles. This view was acquired at a phase angle of 133 degrees.
The scene looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 6 degrees below the ringplane.
A train of clumplike structures curls around the F ring at left.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 24, 2006 at a distance of approximately 999,000 kilometers (621,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 56 kilometers (35 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The smooth region leading up to the A ring grows brighter from the left to the right (known as a "ramp" to ring scientists). This region contains a faint "double-wave" structure that is a density feature caused by the influence of the co-orbital moons Janus and Epimetheus. Scientists are interested in observing the evolution of this density wave as the moons swap places in their orbits every few years, presumably resulting in a change in the perturbations that cause this feature.
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Sept. 5, 2005, at a distance of approximately 441,000 kilometers (274,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The bright ringlets seen here are populated with microscopic icy particles and are among the brightest features in the rings at high phase angles.
The twisted core of the F ring, at left, is flanked by three fainter ringlets which are, in fact, part of a separate continuous structure that spirals around the planet. Right of center, in the Encke Gap, are three tortured-looking ringlets.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 12 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 7, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 163 degrees. Image scale is about 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This bright, isolated plateau in the middle of the C ring displays interesting internal variations in brightness. The plateau is not high in terms of elevation, but rather in terms of its particle density (seen here as brightness), which is several times higher than the surrounding ring structure.
Ring scientists are working to understand what produces the sharp boundaries of the plateau features, as well as the nature of the internal variations in brightness.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 18 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 12, 2007 at a distance of approximately 230,000 kilometers (143,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 1 kilometer (3,353 feet) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's A ring displays a marked asymmetry in brightness between the region nearer to the Cassini spacecraft and the region farther from it. The A ring is the broad, bright section of the rings outside of the dark B ring. The asymmetry may help scientists understand various properties of the rings, such as the sizes of the particles and their arrangement into clumps.
The rings' dark shadows hug Saturn's northern hemisphere.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 7 degrees above the ringplane. The planet is overexposed in this observation, which was designed to capture details in the rings.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 14, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 101 kilometers (63 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's icy satellites wheel about the colorful giant planet, while the rings shine dimly in scattered sunlight. The Ringed Planet is, in many ways, a laboratory for investigating the history of our solar system and how planets form around other stars.
There are four moons visible in this view. Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across), largest in the scene, is on the far side of the ringplane. Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across), is the one on the near side of the rings, below Tethys. Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across), is left of the rings' edge. Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) is a speck below the rings' edge, between Janus and Mimas.Mimas casts a shadow onto Saturn's bluish northern hemisphere.This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 2 degrees above the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 30, 2007. The view was taken at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 153 kilometers (95 miles) per pixel on the planet.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09776: Solar System in Miniature sur le site de la NASA.
Distant Rhea (right) poses here for the Cassini spacecraft, as Pandora hovers against Saturn's dark shadow on the rings.
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 12, 2006, at a distance of approximately 3.6 million kilometers (2.3 million miles) from Pandora and 4.3 million kilometers (2.7 million miles) from Rhea. The image scale is 26 kilometers (16 miles) per pixel on Rhea.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn and its rings manifest a rich interplay between shadow and light.
The rings shine on their unilluminated side by virtue of scattered sunlight emerging from its passage through the ringplane. The dense B ring does not allow much light to pass through, while the C ring is so sheer as to allow the planet to be visible on its other side.
On the planet, shadows cast by the rings arc across the northern hemisphere. Saturn's night side is illuminated in the south by light reflected from the rings' sunlit face. The night-side northern hemisphere is also lit faintly by the face of the rings that is seen in this image. The planet's shadow extends across the ringplane toward right.
Several of Saturn's inner moons are visible in this view (from top to bottom): Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across), Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across), and Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across).
This view looks toward the rings from about 19 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 13, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 107 kilometers (67 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's enchanting rings display crisply defined edges and strong contrast on their unilluminated side.
Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) sits on the far side of the rings above center, between the A and F rings. This view was acquired from about 1 degree above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 21, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Atlas. Image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Two small moons race across the face of Saturn. The planet's icy rings cast dark shadows onto the feathery clouds below.
Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles across) appears above the rings near center. Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles across) is slightly closer to Saturn, to the left of Janus.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 7 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 18, 2008 using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light centered at 752 and 705 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (683,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 62 kilometers (39 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10428: Moons in Transit sur le site de la NASA.
This image shows a close-up view of a density wave in Saturn's A ring. It was taken by the narrow angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft after successful entry into Saturn's orbit. The view shows the dark, or unlit, side of the rings.
The Cassini spacecraft returns another dazzling postcard from its journey with this view of cloud-streaked Saturn and two of its moons.
Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) appears against the planet. Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is seen below the rings at left.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 6 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 67 degrees. Image scale is 130 kilometers (81 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Images taken during the Cassini spacecraft's orbital insertion on June 30 show definite compositional variation within the rings.
This image shows, from left to right, the outer portion of the C ring and inner portion of the B ring. The B ring begins a little more than halfway across the image. The general pattern is from "dirty" particles indicated by red to cleaner ice particles shown in turquoise in the outer parts of the rings.
The ring system begins from the inside out with the D, C, B and A rings followed by the F, G and E rings.
This image was taken with the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph instrument, which is capable of resolving the rings to show features up to 97 kilometers (60 miles) across, roughly 100 times the resolution of ultraviolet data obtained by the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph was built at, and the team is based at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph team home page, http://lasp.colorado.edu/cassini/.
A string of icy moons stretches across the Saturn system in this view from nearly edge-on with the ringplane.
Nearest to the Cassini spacecraft is Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) below center; then little Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across), huddled close to the narrow F ring. Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) floats in the distance beyond.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 8, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.9 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 19 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel on Dione.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This dramatic view of Saturn's rings draped by the shadow of Saturn, shows brightness variations that correspond to differences in the concentration of the ring particles as they orbit the planet.
The planet's western limb is visible in the upper right corner. Three of Saturn's moons can be seen here: Bright Enceladus (499 kilometers, or 310 miles across) is visible near lower right; Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) appears at center left; and interior to the F ring, near the top of the image, is Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across). The F ring, the outermost ring shown here, displays several knot-like features near the left side of the image.
The image was taken in visible light by the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on July 3, 2004, from a distance of 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Saturn, at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 108 degrees. This is the first processed wide angle camera image to be released since Cassini's encounter with Jupiter in 2000. The image scale is 87 kilometers (54 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
A small moon travels its circuit just outside the main rings of Saturn. Epimetheus (116 kilometers, 72 miles across) is absolutely dwarfed by the giant planet.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 5 degrees above the ringplane. The night side of the planet's southern hemisphere is illuminated by ringshine -- sunlight reflected off the rings.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 14, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 102 kilometers (63 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09802: Alone with the Giant sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's rings burst out of shadow and curve gracefully around the planet. Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across at its widest point) appears as a bright speck touching the inside of the narrow F ring. Atlas (30 kilometers, 19 miles across at its widest point) is also visible, faintly, upward and to the left of Prometheus, just outside the A ring edge.
Saturn's shadow cuts across the rings at top right.
Several dark, narrow spokes are faintly visible near the B-ring ansa, left of center.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 13 degrees above the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 4, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (775,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 71 kilometers (44 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10454: Out of Darkness sur le site de la NASA.
The Cassini spacecraft looks across Saturn's cloud-dotted north and shadowed pole, and out across the lanes of ice that compose its rings.
Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) is visible between the A and F rings near the center of the image.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 42 degrees above the ringplane. The planet's shadow stretches toward the lower right corner.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 1, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 119 kilometers (74 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Three of Saturn's brood hurtle around the vast icy disk of its rings.
Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) hangs at the top of this view, with its large crater Herschel in view; Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) lies outside the narrow F ring at right; and centered between the F and A rings at bottom is little Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across).
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 5 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 19, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 3.2 million kilometers (2 million miles) from Mimas, on which the image scale is 19 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Three of Saturn's diverse family of moons are captured in this view.
Smoggy Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) hovers above the thin line of the rings. Much smaller Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) is a mere speck at far left. Bright Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) sits directly in front of the ringplane from the Cassini spacecraft's vantage point.
Saturn's rings cast dark shadows onto its northern hemisphere. As the planet approaches equinox in 2009, the shadows will get closer and closer to the equator and shrink in extent, eventually to emerge in the Southern Hemisphere.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 23, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (889,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 82 kilometers (51 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This view takes in the outer third of Saturn's C ring—from the Maxwell Gap, at center left, to the C-ring edge at lower right.
For reference, see the labeled mosaic of the rings presented in PIA08389.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 4 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 17, 2007. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 465,000 kilometers (289,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale at the center of this view is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel in the radial, or outward from Saturn, direction and 42 kilometers per pixel in the longitudinal, or around Saturn, direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09805: Saturn's Outer C Ring sur le site de la NASA.
Many of the elegant structures in Saturn's rings result from the influence of the planet's moons. Seen here at center is the Cassini Division, flanked at top and bottom by the outer B-ring edge and the inner A-ring edge, respectively.
The gravitational influence of the moon Mimas is responsible for the Cassini Division. See PIA08389 for a labeled map of Saturn's rings.
The view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 33 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 2, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1 million kilometers (639,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10482: Moonmade Ringscape sur le site de la NASA.
Two ring moons sweep through the scene as Cassini focuses on Saturn's intriguing F ring.
Daphnis (8 kilometers, or 5 miles across) is seen at right with its edge waves in the Keeler Gap. Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles across) appears at left.
This image is part of a movie sequence designed to observe the appearance of the F ring and its faint flanking ringlets. As such, the exposure was not optimized to image Pandora, therefore the moon is overexposed.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 22 degrees above the ringplane.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 5, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (718,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10453: F Ring in Between sur le site de la NASA.
The spoke-producing region of the B ring displays fine-scale asymmetry in the azimuthal direction -- the direction along which the ring particles orbit Saturn -- from upper left to lower right across the image.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 14 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 12, 2006 at a distance of approximately 429,000 kilometers (267,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A close-up of Saturn's A ring reveals dozens of small, bright streaks aligned with the orbital direction of the rings. These objects are the propeller-shaped features first captured in Cassini images during the spacecraft's 2004 orbital insertion maneuver, as Cassini skimmed just above the ringplane.
The propeller features were announced in 2006 (see PIA07792).
Each propeller is the visible gravitational disturbance created around a small moonlet embedded in the ring. The moonlets are likely between 10 and 100 meters (30 to 300 feet) across. Cassini imaging scientists have previously found that propeller swarms like this occur primarily in three narrow bands in the middle part of the A ring.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 35 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 219,000 kilometers (136,000 miles) above the rings and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 127 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel in the radial, or outward from Saturn direction and 2 kilometers (1 mile) in the longitudinal, or around Saturn, direction.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10505: Propeller Swarm sur le site de la NASA.
Our robotic emissary, flying high above Saturn, captured this view of an alien copper-colored ring world. The overexposed planet has deliberately been removed to show the unlit rings alone, seen from an elevation of 60 degrees, the highest Cassini has yet attained.
The view is a mosaic of 27 images --nine separate sets of red, green and blue images-- taken over the course of about 45 minutes, as Cassini scanned across the entire main ring system.
The planet's shadow carves a dark swath across the ring plane at the right. The overexposed planet has been removed.
Moons visible in this image: Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) at the 1 o'clock position, Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) at the 5 o'clock position, Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) at the 10 o'clock position.
Bright clumps of material in the narrow F ring moved in their orbits between each of the color exposures, creating a chromatic misalignment that provides some sense of the continuous motion in the ring system.
Radially extending lens flare artifacts, which result from light being scattered within the camera optics, are present in the view.
The images in this natural-color view were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 21, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 90 kilometers (56 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft continues to observe brightness variations along the orbital direction within Saturn's B ring.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 53 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 17, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This close-up view of the core of Saturn's narrow outlying F ring provides an unprecedented look at the fine scale structure of this highly perturbed ring.
Like PIA08290, the structure seen here could be further evidence of the gravitational effects of small moons orbiting in the F ring region. The moons could produce the basic structure which then starts to shear -- the inner/lower part of the F ring core orbits Saturn faster than the outer/upper part -- giving rise to the slanted features.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 254,000 kilometers (158,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 28 degrees. Scale in the original image was 1 kilometer (3,845 feet) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast enhanced.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Across the expanse of Saturn's rings, the Cassini spacecraft spies two small moons in consort.
Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is seen exterior to the bright outer edge of the A ring. Daphnis (7 kilometers, or 4.3 miles across), below Atlas in this view, orbits Saturn within the narrow Keeler Gap. The presence of Daphnis is revealed by the waves it raises in the ring material surrounding it on the edges of the gap. Daphnis and its waves moved between exposures taken to create this color view, resulting in their slight displacement in each color.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane. Bright clumps are visible in the narrow F ring.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 13, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Atlas. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Bright ringlets and dark gaps at the inner edge of the C ring sweep across this scene. The C ring contains numerous "plateaus" -- broad ring regions that are bright and surrounded by fainter material.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 23, 2006. The view was captured from 14 degrees below the ring plane and at a distance of approximately 272,000 kilometers (169,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Faint features in Saturn's innermost ring, the D ring, are brought into view in this strongly contrast-enhanced Cassini image. A few background stars are visible through the sheer ring as squiggly star trails.
The inner region of the C ring is seen at upper left. The faint diagonal wedge shape on the left side of the image was caused by stray light in the camera optics.
The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 18 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 12, 2007 at a distance of approximately 238,000 kilometers (148,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft continues to investigate the intriguing structure in Saturn's outer B-ring edge. This region has a much perturbed character compared to the orderly rings around it.
Ring scientists think these features may be groupings of particles that clump together under to their own gravity. The clumping features may result from the fact that this region is compressed periodically, owing to perturbations by the moon Mimas. Mimas maintains this ring edge via a gravitational resonance.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 51 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 2, 2008. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 185,000 kilometers (115,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 771 meters (2,530 feet) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10421: Perturbed Edge sur le site de la NASA.
Atlas and Pan emerge from the far side of Saturn. Light passing through the upper reaches of the planet's atmosphere is refracted, or bent, distorting the image of the rings beyond.
Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) is seen within the Encke Gap. Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) orbits just beyond the outer edge of Saturn's A ring.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 12 degrees above the ringplane. Shadows cast by the rings arc across the planet toward the Cassini spacecraft.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 12, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft skims past Saturn's ringplane at a low angle, spotting two ring moons on the far side.
Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) sits within the Encke Gap right of center. Beyond the F ring hovers Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across).
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 14, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This is one of the first images taken of Saturn's F ring by the Cassini spacecraft after it successfully entered Saturn's orbit. It was taken by the spacecraft's wide angle camera and shows the sunlit side of the rings.
Saturn's C ring emerges from behind the planet's hazy limb.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 15 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 17, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 937,000 kilometers (582,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10426: Beyond the Limb sur le site de la NASA.
This series of 10 Hubble Space Telescope images captures several small moons orbiting Saturn. Hubble snapped the five pairs of images while the Earth was just above the ring plane and the Sun below it. The telescope captured a pair of images every 97 minutes as it circled the Earth. Moving out from Saturn, the visible rings are: the broad C Ring, the Cassini Division, and the narrow F Ring.
The first pair of images shows the large, bright moon Dione, near the middle of the frames. Two smaller moons, Pandora (the brighter one closer to Saturn) and Prometheus, appear as if they're touching the F Ring. In the second frame, Mimas emerges from Saturn's shadow and appears to be chasing Prometheus.
In the second image pair, Mimas has moved towards the tip of the F Ring. Rhea, another bright moon, has just emerged from behind Saturn. Prometheus, the closest moon to Saturn, has rounded the F Ring's tip and is approaching the planet. The slightly larger moon Epimetheus has appeared.
The third image pair shows Epimetheus, as a tiny dot just beyond the tip of the F Ring. Prometheus is in the lower right corner. An elongated clump or arc of debris in the F ring is seen as a slight brightening on the far side of this thin ring.
In the fourth image pair, Epimetheus, in the lower right corner, streaks towards Saturn. The long ring arc can be seen in both frames.
The fifth image pair again captures Mimas, beyond the tip of the F Ring. The same ring arc is still visible.
In addition to the satellites, a pair of stars can be seen passing behind the rings, appearing to move towards the lower left due to Saturn's motion across the sky.
The images were taken Nov. 21, 1995 with Wide Field Planetary Camera-2.
The Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center for NASA's Office of Space Science.
This image and other images and data received from the Hubble Space Telescope are posted on the World Wide Web on the Space Telescope Science Institute home page at URL http://oposite.stsci.edu/.
Voir l'image PIA01271: Moons Around Saturn sur le site de la NASA.
This contrast-enhanced view of Saturn's faint G ring shows its extremely sharp inner edge and more diffuse outer boundary. Using its large high-gain antenna as a shield, the Cassini spacecraft flew through the region interior to the G ring during insertion into Saturn orbit. The spacecraft was struck many times by the fine icy particles that populate the region between the F and G rings.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 19, 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's rings create a brilliant halo around the turbulent giant planet. Here, the Cassini spacecraft looks into Saturn's clouds using a spectral filter sensitive to absorption by methane. Light that reaches down to depths where methane is prevalent gets absorbed. Regions of the planet devoid of the clouds and hazes that can reflect this light back to the camera appear relatively dark. Thus, the bright areas in these images represent hazes and clouds high in the atmosphere.
Because the range of wavelengths for this filter is narrow, and because most of this light is absorbed by Saturn, the planet's disk is inherently faint and the exposures required are rather long. The rings do not strongly absorb at these wavelengths, and so they reflect more light and are overexposed compared to the atmosphere.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 6 degrees below the ringplane. Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is seen above the rings at right.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 25, 2007 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 890 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 67 degrees. Image scale is 132 kilometers (82 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09769: Masked by Methane sur le site de la NASA.
A great storm swims in the cloud lanes of Saturn's high northern latitudes. Dark bands across the bottom of this view are shadows cast by the partly opaque rings. Cloud features are visible within the shadow of the A ring, below center.
The image was taken in polarized infrared light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.2 million kilometers (2 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 37 kilometers (23 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Looking something like the fibrous bow of a violin, Saturn's colorful rings sweep through this spectacular natural color view while two small moons look on.
From left, the moons visible here are Janus (181 kilometers, or 112 miles across) and Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across). Cassini's view in this image is from beneath the ring plane; the moons are on the far side of Saturn. Janus leads Mimas as the two moons orbit the planet.
Nearly the entire ring system can be seen in this view. The diaphanous C ring appears at the upper right, followed by the multi-hued B ring. Next, the famous Cassini division (4,800 kilometers, or 2,980 miles wide) separates the A and B rings. The outer edge of the B ring which forms the inner boundary of the Cassini division is maintained by a gravitational resonance with Mimas. Near the outer edge of the A ring are the Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 202 miles wide) and the barely visible Keeler Gap (35 kilometers, or 22 miles wide). The faint, thread-like F ring is discernible just beyond the main rings.
The image was obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on August 27, 2004, at a distance of 9.1 million kilometers (5.6 million miles) from Saturn. Images taken with red, green and blue filters were combined to create this color view. The moons have been enhanced in brightness to increase their visibility. The image scale is 54 kilometers (34 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
The Cassini spacecraft's current high-inclination orbit allows for some fantastic perspectives, like this shot of Saturn's south pole, which looks toward the rings beyond.
The dark bullseye at the pole marks the eye of a great hurricane-like storm investigated by Cassini in 2006. (See PIA08332 Looking Saturn in the Eye.)The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 728 nanometers. The view was acquired on Dec. 13, 2006 at a distance of approximately 790,000 kilometers (491,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 44 kilometers (27 miles) per pixel.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Although the embedded moon Pan is nowhere to be seen, there is a bright clump-like feature visible here, within the Encke Division. Also discernable are periodic brightness variations along the outer (right side) gap edge.
See PIA07528 for further information about Pan, the Encke Gap and its ringlets.
The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 17 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 421,000 kilometers (261,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Two of Saturn's ring moons are captured in this Cassini spacecraft view, along with the signature of another. This image was taken not long after Prometheus passed, leaving a trail of dark gores in the inner edge of the F ring.
Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) orbits Saturn about 4,090 kilometers (2,540 miles) closer than Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across), meaning that Pan orbits faster, always overtaking its slower moving sibling.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 25 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 23, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from both moons. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09845: Pan in the Fast Lane sur le site de la NASA.
Spiral density waves in Saturn's A ring reveal the gravitational signatures of distant moons as they subtly tug on the countless particles orbiting in the ring plane.
Resulting from a process called orbital resonance, a spiral density wave is a spiral-shaped massing of particles that tightly winds many times around the planet. Thus, the wave patterns seen here represent successive windings of each wave, like a close-up view of a watch spring.
Ring scientists can read these patterns, learning from them how quickly the rings are spreading and the amount of mass contained in a region.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 42 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 1, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 268,000 kilometers (167,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09894: Saturn's Watch Spiral sur le site de la NASA.
Cassini looks toward northern latitudes on Saturn and out across the ringplane. This infrared view probes clouds beneath the hazes that obscure the planet's depths in natural color views.
This image looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 24 degrees above the ringplane. The rings' shadow drapes across the region north of the planet's bright equatorial band.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of light centered at 890 nanometers. The view was acquired on May 24, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 89 kilometers (55 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This view of Saturn's outer C ring shows the extreme variations in brightness, along with the subtle, large-scale wavy variations discovered 24 years ago by NASA's Voyager spacecraft. The notably dark Maxwell gap (near upper right) contains the bright, narrow and eccentric Maxwell ringlet, a Saturnian analog of the narrow Uranian epsilon ring. The gap also contains another very faint ringlet newly discovered by Cassini.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 29, 2004, at a distance of 838,000 (521,000 miles) from Saturn. The center of this view shows an area located approximately 81,300 kilometers (50,500 miles) from the planet. The image scale is 4.6 kilometers (2.9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
This mosaic of Saturn's rings was acquired by Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer instrument on Sept. 15, 2006, while the spacecraft was in the shadow of the planet looking back towards the rings from a distance of 2.16 million kilometers (1.34 million miles).
Data at wavelengths of 1.0 micron, 1.75 micron and 3.6 microns were combined in the blue, green and red channels to make the pseudo-color image shown here.
The brightest feature in the mosaic is the F ring, located at the outer edge of the main rings. The F ring is overexposed and appears white in this image. Of the main A, B and C rings; the C ring is the most prominent and reddish in color, becoming saturated close to the sun. The more opaque A and B rings are muddy in color and very dark in this geometry.
By contrast, the normally faint D ring, located just interior to the C ring, is quite bright and blue, indicating the presence of very small ring particles. Similarly, a narrow, green ringlet in the Cassini Division, as well as the greenish G ring and blue E ring -- located at increasing distances outside the F ring -- are predominantly composed of small particles. The faint reddish band immediately outside the F ring is likely to be an artifact caused by the extremely bright F ring.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona where this image was produced.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team homepage is at http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu.
This sequence of images shows a faint arc of material in Saturn's G ring, a tenuous ring outside the main ring system. These images were each taken about 45 minutes apart. During this time, the arc (slightly brighter than the ring itself) moves around the outer edge of the ring.
The arc is visible on the lower part of the ring in the first image, just beneath the ansa (or outer edge). In the second image the arc is easily seen on the outer edge, and then faintly just above the outer edge in the third image.
What makes this part of the G ring brighter than other parts is not clear. However, the existence of this arc might hold clues about how this ring was formed and where the material which makes up this ring comes from.
These three images were taken in polarized near-infrared light using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 24, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Resolution in the original images was about 97 kilometers (60 miles) per pixel. The images have been contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
The range of features to be found in Saturn's C ring is seen in this Cassini image.
Near the bottom of the frame is a narrow eccentric ringlet lying in a gap that researchers suspect may contain one or more very small moons. Farther up, the bright feature is one of the C ring's "plateaus." These bright features in the C ring are much denser than the surrounding material, and their origin is also being studied.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 9, 2008 at a distance of approximately 339,000 kilometers (211,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 101 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10537: Many Faces of the C Ring sur le site de la NASA.
This is an artist concept of the ring of debris that may orbit Saturn's second-largest moon, Rhea. The suggested disk of solid material is exaggerated in density here for clarity.
Due to a decrease in the number of electrons detected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on either side of the moon, scientists suggest that rings are the likeliest cause of these electrons being blocked before they reach Cassini.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The magnetospheric imaging instrument was designed, built and is operated by an international team led by the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Md.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm and the instrument team's home page, http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/CASSINI/index.html.
Voir l'image PIA10246: Artist Concept of Rhea Rings sur le site de la NASA.
Pandora orbits near a kink in the F ring. Whether it was Prometheus or Pandora that created the kink is not obvious in this instance.
While not as impressive as the gores which Prometheus induces in the ring, the gravitational influence of this little moon is still important in shaping the F ring.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 15, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.026 million kilometers (637,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 38 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10530: Pandora Gets Kinky sur le site de la NASA.
The F ring dissolves into a fuzzy stream of particles -- rather different from its usual appearance of a narrow, bright core flanked by dimmer ringlets. Also notable here is the bright clump of material that flanks the ring's core.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 58 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 10, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This mosaic of two Cassini images shows Pan and Prometheus creating features in nearby rings.
Pan (28 kilometers, or 17 miles across), in the Encke Gap at left, is trailed by a series of edge waves in the outer boundary of the gap. Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across at its widest point) just touches the inner edge of Saturn's F ring at right, and is followed by a series of dark channels in the ring, which were caused by the passage of Prometheus through the F ring on previous orbits.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 3 degrees above the ringplane. The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 15, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (746,000 miles) from Pan and Prometheus. Image scale is 7 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel on both moons.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10468: Disturbing Moons sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's entire main ring system spreads out below Cassini in this night side view, which shows the rings disappearing into the planet's shadow.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 48 degrees above the ringplane. In the upper right corner lies the darkened northern hemisphere; beneath it, the lit side of the rings casts reflected sunlight, or ringshine, onto southern latitudes, lighting up the skies there. A sliver of light from Saturn's sunlit side pierces the top of the image.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 5, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 69 kilometers (43 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This false-color image of Saturn was constructed by combining three images at three different infrared wavelengths.
The image at the upper left was taken at 1.3 microns, where both Saturn and its rings strongly reflect light. The center image in the top panel was taken at 2.4 microns, where the rings strongly reflect light, but Saturn, because of the methane in its atmosphere, absorbs most of the light. The third image on the right in the panel was taken at a wavelength of 5 microns where, because they are composed of almost pure water ice, the rings absorb almost all the light, and Saturn, because its interior is warm, glows. Assigning each of the three images to blue, green and red, respectively, results in the beautiful, false-color, composite image shown below.
These images were taken on June 21, 2004, with Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer at a distance of 6.35 million kilometers (3.94 million miles) from Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona where this image was produced.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team homepage is at http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu.
Saturn's shadow cuts sharply across the rings in this remarkable night side view.
The planet's northern latitudes are in darkness in the upper portion of this scene, while the southern reaches are bathed in ringshine. On the left sunlight filters through the rings, and on the right the rings are blocking the reflected ringshine in the shadow of Saturn. The overexposed, sunlit crescent at lower left marks the transition from Saturnian day to night.
Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) hovers below center -- a tiny bauble ornamenting the ringed giant.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on August 19, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Mimas and 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 92 kilometers (57 miles) per pixel on Mimas and 103 kilometers (64 miles) on Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's nearly edge-on rings are caught between two moons.
The edge of the F ring has a blurred appearance with bright Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) as a backdrop. Oblong Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) transits Dione and heads off toward right.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 24, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Dione at an image scale of about 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This view, acquired with the sun almost directly behind Saturn, reveals a previously unknown faint ring of material coincident with the orbit of the small moon Pallene.
Another new, diffuse ring seen here was previously announced (see PIA08322), and is coincident with the orbits of Saturn's moons Janus and Epimetheus.
This viewing geometry makes microscopic, icy ring particles brighten substantially. Cassini spent nearly 12 hours in Saturn's shadow on Sept. 15, 2006, making observations like this one.
The new Pallene ring is a faint narrow band, about 2,500 kilometers (about 1,550 miles) across, between the E ring and the G ring. The Janus/Epimetheus ring is visible between the G ring and the bright main rings and is about 5,000 kilometer (3,100 miles) wide. A labeled version of this view is also available and shows the locations of these features.
Pallene, discovered by Cassini's imaging cameras earlier in the mission, is 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) across. Pallene orbits Saturn between the moons Mimas and Enceladus. The bright dot in the Pallene ring is not the tiny moon, but rather is a background star.
While it is not unexpected that impact events on Janus, Epimetheus, and Pallene might kick particles off the moons' surfaces and inject them into Saturn orbit, it is, however, surprising that these structures are so well-defined.
The view looks down from about 15 degrees above the dark side of the rings. Some faint spokes can also be spotted in the main rings, made visible by sunlight diffusing through the B ring.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 15, 2006, at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle of almost 179 degrees. Image scale is approximately 250 kilometers (155 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Cassini instruments provide complementary information about the structure of Saturn's rings. Narrow and wide angle cameras provide images in the visible region of the electromagnetic, spectrum much like a digital camera does. The images have information about how the ring structure differs both with distance from the planet and with position around the equatorial circle. However, resolution is usually limited to few kilometers at best.
Radio and stellar occultations of the rings also provide important information about ring structure, but only along a one-dimensional track through the rings. The radial resolution can be as fine as 50 meters (164 feet). An "image" is then constructed by assuming circular symmetry over the ring region of interest. Color is usually added to encode other information related to the observed structure.
This image compares structure of Saturn's rings observed by these two approaches. The upper half is a natural color mosaic of images by the Cassini narrow-angle camera (see PIA06175). The bottom simulated images is constructed from a radio occultation observation conducted on May 3, 2005. Color in the lower image is used to represent information about ring particle sizes. For another view created using this process (see PIA07872).
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radio science team is based at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute,Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information on the radio science team visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments-cassini-rss.cfm. The imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Saturn's moons Janus and Epimetheus are captured swinging around Saturn's rings and past Dione in this movie sequence from the Cassini spacecraft.
The spacecraft repeatedly imaged the two moons just as they were about to round the outside edge of the rings, which were out of view to the left. Janus and Epimetheus orbit Saturn at nearly the same distance and velocity, although (as seen here) Janus is several tens of thousands of kilometers ahead of Epimetheus and farther from Cassini. Dione is actually quite far in the background compared to the small moons.
At the beginning of the movie, Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles across) is at the left, Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is at the center, and Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) is at the right.
The movie was created using 18 clear-filter images taken over a period of about 30 minutes. The images were acquired by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 30, 2005, at a mean distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Janus and 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Epimetheus. The image scale is approximately 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Janus and Epimetheus, and 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel on Dione.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This montage of four images of Saturn's knotted F ring shows different locations around the ring, even though all taken within a few hours of each other. There is considerable variation in the structure of the ring at these four locations.
For example, the number of ring strands differs from image to image. And in some images, kinks are clearly visible in the ring, while others regions appear more smooth.
Astronomers believe that the structure of Saturn's F ring is governed by its shepherding moons, Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across). The ring's appearance is expected to vary depending on how recently a ring section has encountered each moon and how close the moon came to the ring.
These images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 3 and 4, 2005, from below the ringplane and at distances ranging from 735,000 to 952,000 kilometers (457,000 to 592,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale ranges from 4 to 6 kilometers (2 to 4 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
Although difficult to see at first, more than one moon is at work sculpting Saturn's rings in this view from the Cassini spacecraft.
Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) is more or less obvious just inside the perturbed F ring. But in the Keeler Gap, just inside the bright A ring edge, lurks Daphnis (7 kilometers, or 4.3 miles across). The tiny moon and its attendant waves in the gap edges create a slight brightening of the gap at center.
This image is a wide-angle view taken concurrently with the higher resolution view seen in PIA07809.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 17 degrees below the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 422,000 kilometers (262,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 22 kilometers (13 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
For an Earth observer on May 3, 2005, the Cassini spacecraft appeared to pass behind the rings, then Saturn, then the rings again (the red line). The discovered harmonic structure was found on both the way in and out, but only in locations where particles are densely packed together, such as the B ring and the innermost part of the A ring.
The May 3 radio experiment and several others to follow in 2005 showed that the regular spacing of the harmonic structure vary from 100 to 250 meters (320 to 820 feet), depending on the location in the rings. To see an illustration of this occultation see PIA10232.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radio science team is based at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. For more information on the radio science team visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments-cassini-rss.cfm.
Voir l'image PIA10233: Saturn's Ring Rhythm #2 sur le site de la NASA.
The F ring and outer edge of the A ring can be seen in this image. A kink feature is visible in the F ring, probably caused by Prometheus or Pandora, the F ring's shepherd moons.
Another moon, Daphnis, can be seen in the Keeler gap near the outer edge of the A ring, along with the waves Daphnis raises on that gap's edges. Waves like these allow researchers to locate new moons in gaps and also estimate their masses.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 7, 2008 at a distance of approximately 992,000 kilometers (616,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 48 degrees. Image scale is 6 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10545: Fingerprints of the Shepherds sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's shadow cloaks the faint D ring at the bottom of this image.
Observations of the shadow boundary, like this one, enable scientists to clearly detect and measure the brightness of diffuse and faint ring features like the inner part of the D-ring. Such brightness measurements are often difficult to make, but the shadow region provides a very dark standard against which to compare the D ring, as the only brightness in the shadow is provided by the background of space.
The bright specks across the scene, both in the bright rings and in the shadow, are either stars or cosmic ray hits on the camera's detector.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 42 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 12, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 152 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
A great, eye-like vortex stares out of Saturn's roiling atmosphere. The storm is wide enough to span the distance from Washington, DC to London. Bright Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across) drifts past in the foreground.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 3 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 23, 2008 using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of polarized infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (783,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 72 kilometers (45 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA09913: A Capital Storm sur le site de la NASA.
Saturn's inner C ring spreads across the field of view, showing the characteristic plateau and wave-like structure for which it is famed.
The center of this image shows an area approximately 75,000 kilometers (46,600 miles) from Saturn. The dark gap through the middle of the frame is the Colombo gap which houses the bright, narrow, eccentric Colombo ringlet, in resonance with the moon Titan.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 29, 2004, at a distance of about 842,000 (523,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 4.7 kilometers (2.9 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information, about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.
Scientists have long suspected that small moons hiding among Saturn's ring strands might be producing some of the unusual structure observed in the F ring. While the shepherd moon Prometheus is the main culprit behind the strange behavior of Saturn's F ring, it cannot explain all observed features. The current dilemma facing scientists is that Cassini is detecting extended objects like those pictured here -- that may be either solid moons or just loose clumps of particles within the ring.
This montage of four enhanced Cassini narrow-angle camera images shows bright clump-like features at different locations within the F ring.
Two objects in particular, provisionally named S/2004 S3 and S/2004 S6, have been repeatedly observed by Cassini over the past 13.5 months and 8.5 months, respectively. The orbits for these two objects have not yet been precisely determined, in part because perturbations from other nearby moons make the orbits of objects in this region complicated. Thus, scientists cannot be completely confident at the present time if they in fact have observed new sightings of S3 and S6, or additional transient clumps.
The upper two images show features that may be S6. From previous observations, S6 appears to have an orbit that crosses that of the main F ring. This unexpected behavior currently is a subject of great interest to ring scientists.
The upper left image was taken on June 21, 2005, and shows an object in the outer ringlets of the F ring. The radial (or lengthwise) extent of the feature is approximately 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles). The radial resolution on the ring is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.
The image at the upper right was taken on June 29, 2005, and shows a bright feature within the F ring's inner ringlets. The radial extent of the feature seen here is about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles); the radial resolution is 36 kilometers (22 miles).
The image at the lower left was taken on August 2, 2005, and shows a feature that may be S3. S3 has been found to have an orbital path that is tightly aligned with that of the main F ring. The radial resolution in the image is 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) per pixel.
The lower right image was taken on April 13, 2005, and has a radial resolution of 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel. This object does not appear to be either S3 or S6.
Structures like knots and clumps within the F ring often are transient, appearing and then disappearing within months. Repeated observation of the objects seen in this region hopefully will give scientists firm evidence about whether these features are actual moons that disturb the material around them or perhaps the short-lived products of interactions between the F ring and larger moons such as Prometheus.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage http://ciclops.org.
A large group of spokes emerges from Saturn's shadow in this image taken of the morning side of the rings. Such groupings may hold clues to the manner in which these features are formed.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 2, 2008 at a distance of approximately 869,000 kilometers (540,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 37 degrees. Image scale is 48 kilometers (30 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Voir l'image PIA10539: Out of the Shadow sur le site de la NASA.
Two of Saturn's icy attendants race past on their circuit of the ringed beauty.
Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across), with its prominent crater Herschel, is seen at right. The shepherd moon Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) cruises along at center, just beyond Saturn's F ring. Orbiting nearly 44,000 kilometers (27,500 miles) closer to Saturn than its more distant neighbor, the swifter Pandora is about to overtake Mimas.
This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 4 degrees below the ringplane. Shadows cast by the rings adorn the northern hemisphere.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 8, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 3.1 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from the two moons. Image scale is about 18 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel on both bodies.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This false color image of two density waves in Saturn's A ring was made from the stellar occultation observed by Cassini's ultraviolet imaging spectrograph when the spacecraft was 6.3 million kilometers (4 million miles) from Saturn.
Bright areas indicate the denser regions of the rings. The bright bands in the left part of the image are the "peaks" of a density wave caused by gravitational stirring of the rings by Saturn's moon, Janus. A smaller density wave in the right half of the image is produced by the moon Pandora. The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph observed the brightness of the star Xi Ceti as the rings passed in front of it, and the flickering of the starlight was converted into the ring density depicted by the image. The image represents a distance of about 724 kilometers (450 miles), and the smallest features are about one-half mile across.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph was built at, and the team is based at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph team home page, http://lasp.colorado.edu/cassini.
Specially designed Cassini orbits place Earth and Cassini on opposite sides of Saturn's rings, a geometry known as occultation. Cassini conducted the first radio occultation observation of Saturn's rings on May 3, 2005.
Three simultaneous radio signals of 0.94, 3.6, and 13 centimeter wavelength (Ka-, X-, and S-bands) were sent from Cassini through the rings to Earth. The observed change of each signal as Cassini moved behind the rings provided a profile of the distribution of ring material as a function of distance from Saturn, or an optical depth profile.
This simulated image was constructed from the measured optical depth profiles. It depicts the observed ring structure at about 10 kilometers (6 miles) in resolution. Color is used to represent information about ring particle sizes in different regions based on the measured effects of the three radio signals.
Purple color indicates regions where there is a lack of particles of size less than 5 centimeters (about 2 inches). Green and blue shades indicate regions where there are particles smaller than 5 centimeters (2 inches) and 1 centimeter (less than one third of one inch). The saturated broad white band near the middle of ring B is the densest region of ring B, over which two of the three radio signals were blocked at 10-kilometer (6-mile) resolution, preventing accurate color representation over this band. From other evidence in the radio observations, all ring regions appear to be populated by a broad range particle size distribution that extends to boulder sizes (several to many meters across).
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radio science team is based at JPL.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information on the radio science team visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments-cassini-rss.cfm.
The Cassini Division appears to emerge out of Saturn's shadow in this Cassini spacecraft image. This division between the A and B rings, visible through modest telescopes from Earth, actually contains five dim bands of ring material, here seen near the left side of the image between two small dark gaps.
This detailed view also displays a great deal of structure in the B ring, left of the division. The Cassini Division is 4,800 kilometers (2,980 miles) wide.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 59 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 9, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
From on high, the Cassini spacecraft spots a group of faint spokes against the striped landscape of the B ring, the dark region in the middle of the rings here. The spokes appear as irregular blotches, bright against the unlit side of the rings.
Outside the rings, at about the two o'clock position in the image, is the moon Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across). The two points of light below center, on both sides of the F ring, are not the shepherd moons Prometheus and Pandora, but rather, are stars in the background. Other faint stars are also visible in the image.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 46 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 20, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 144 degrees. Image scale is 109 kilometers (68 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
This view shows the unlit face of Saturn's rings, visible via scattered and transmitted light. In these views, dark regions represent gaps and areas of higher particle densities, while brighter regions are filled with less dense concentrations of ring particles.
The dim right side of the image contains nearly the entire C ring. The brighter region in the middle is the inner B ring, while the darkest part represents the dense outer B Ring. The Cassini Division and the innermost part of the A ring are at the upper-left.
Saturn's shadow carves a dark triangle out of the lower right corner of this image.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 433,000 kilometers (269,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 22 kilometers (14 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .
