Rhea’s cratered surface appears in high relief in this photo from the Cassini orbiter, taken on February 2, 2009. (Click to view the full version.) Rhea (REE-ah) is Saturn’s second-largest moon, after Titan, but at 950 miles across compared 3,200, Rhea is dwarfed by her bigger brother. Still, Rhea has some interesting features….it is…
Category: Saturn
Ready For My Close-Up, Mister Cassini
In less than 9 hours the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will conduct its next flyby of Saturn’s moon Titan, using its radar mapping instruments to pierce the moon’s thick atmosphere and reveal more information about surface features. In particular, tonight’s flyby will focus on a feature in Titan’s south polar region called “Ontario Lacus”. Originally mapped…
Once a Jet, Always a Jet
Cassini’s camera caught Enceladus in just the right light this past Saturday, backlit by the sun and showing off its signature icy jets. Emanating from fractures in its southern polar region, the jets are composed of water ices and hint at possible liquid water existing beneath its surface, kept liquid by heat from the…
The Shadows of Spring
As Saturn’s springtime approaches on August 11 it is gradually moving into a position when its rings will be perfectly aligned with its orbital plane, causing them to be lit by the sun edge-on. During the months until then many of the moons of Saturn will be casting their shadows upon the rings, fleeting…
A Primordial Moon
Another beautiful composite by Gordan Ugarkovic, this false-color image shows the ancient cratered surface of Saturn’s moon Phoebe. About 132 miles across, Phoebe is a fifteenth the size of our own moon but is thought to be much, much older. With its retrograde (backwards) orbit, high orbital incline and extremely dark, pitted surface, it’s…
A Procession of Moons
With Saturn angled such that its ring plane is aligned with Earth’s orbit, its rings appear as a thin band and several of its moons can be seen crossing its face in this photo, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on February 24, 2009. The smaller moons closer to the rings are, left to…
Sheer Elegance
Viewed from the unlit side, the delicate transparency of Saturn’s innermost “C” Ring becomes apparent in this photo. Saturn’s upper atmospheric haze can be seen through the dark material of the rings. This photo shows a natural color view. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
The Dark Side
The dark side of Tethys is illuminated by reflected light from Saturn in this image from the Cassini orbiter. On the sunlit side, the giant Odysseus crater can be seen straddling the western edge. The crater is 280 miles across in its entirety, taking up a large portion of the 660-mile-wide moon’s icy surface….
The Pull of Prometheus
Prometheus’ effect on Saturn’s ropy F ring is evident in this photo from Cassini, taken March 7, 2009. As the irregularly-shaped shepherd moon approaches the ring material in its looping orbit around Saturn, it draws material from the ring in towards itself, warping and stretching the ring particles into waving streamers that eventually settle and…
Making Waves
Little Daphnis sends waves curling in its wake as it courses along the Keeler Gap in Saturn’s A-ring in this photo from Cassini’s narrow-angle camera. The image was taken on January 31, 2009, approximately 532,000 miles from Daphnis and the rings. Daphnis is about 5 miles in diameter. The Keeler Gap is 26 miles…
Rings Upon Rings
The stately geometry of Saturn’s rings is showcased here in this photo taken by Cassini on January 14. This image spans a distance of about 2,028 miles. Saturn’s rings are composed of particles of ice, rock and dust extending hundreds of thousands of miles into orbit, but only about 30 feet thick. Their age…
Ringshine
Moons Dione and Janus are crescent-lit by the scattered light of Saturn’s F-ring, a narrow, clumpy ring with a bright core of water ice particles. (Dione is in the foreground.) This photo was rendered in true color by Gordan Ugarkovic using raw image data. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Gordan Ugarkovic.
Lights in the Dark 