A nicely-modeled Mimas, in sunlit backlighting and a soft cast from reflected light off Saturn. Taken by the Cassini orbiter on January 23 at a distance of 316,ooo miles. (Mimas is about 246 miles wide.) Image credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Tag: moon
Small Steps
It’s important to remember that, even with all of the incredible images and data coming in from the robotic missions at work around our solar system every day, humans have yet to venture further than our own Moon. Which is no mean feat in itself…traveling the 240,000-mile journey there and then back is not for…
Ancient Scars
Old craters are overlapped by younger ones in this image of Saturn’s moon Rhea, taken by the Cassini orbiter on August 29, 2008 and released today. The 950-mile-wide moon holds the distinction as the only known moon to have its own set of rings: a thin, scattered version of its parent’s signature trait. Perhaps…
Prometheus Unbound
One of several tiny “shepherd” moons, a well-lit Prometheus cruises the gap between Saturn’s A and F rings, clearing the channel while pulling up a small plume of material from the ropy F ring as it passes by. This is from raw image data shot by Cassini on February 10, 2009. I adjusted the image…
Total Eclipse of the Earth
Japan’s KAGUYA satellite took this photo of Earth from its orbit around the Moon during a penumbral eclipse – the positioning of the Earth between the Sun and Moon – on February 10, 2009 with its high-definition camera. This is the first time such an event has been photographed from the Moon. During a penumbral…
Portrait of Home
It’s important to know where you came from. When it was on its way to the red planet in the summer of 2003, Europe’s Mars Express turned its camera and got a photo of the Earth and Moon. This is what we all look like from 5 million miles away. By the time it reaches Mars,…
Enigmatic Enceladus
The tortured terrain of Enceladus (en-SELL-a-dus) comes into light in this image taken by Cassini last October. This is actually a false-color mosaic of 28 images, assembled by the imaging operations center in Boulder, CO. The bluish tints are used to highlight features on the moon’s surface and show different densities of surface material. I rotated…
Lights in the Dark 