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A Captivating Saturnian Vision
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 12, 2006 Cassini captured this arresting view of Saturn just before its tiny moon Epimetheus crossed into the blinding glare of the planet's sunlit crescent and was lost. As it orbits Saturn, Epimetheus, only 116 kilometers (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. Cassini took the image in visible light with its narrow-angle camera on June 9 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. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Cassini at JPL Cassini Image Library Explore The Ring World of Saturn and her moons Jupiter and its Moons The million outer planets of a star called Sol News Flash at Mercury
Cassini Spots Another New Tiny Saturn Moon
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 13, 2006This magnified view shows tiny Polydeuces, a moon discovered by NASA's Cassini spacecraft last month, is a mere 3 kilometers (2 miles) across. Along with much larger Helene (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across), Polydeuces orbits Saturn at the same distance as large, icy Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). |
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