Saturn's moon Mimas drifts in a magical sea of color in this new image from the Cassini spacecraft.

The moon, 247 miles (398 kilometers) wide, is seen against the blue-streaked backdrop of Saturn’s northern hemisphere. Shadows cast by the rings arc across the planet, fading into darkness on Saturn’s night side. The rings are made of ice particles that reflect sunlight.

The part of the atmosphere seen here appears darker and more bluish than the warm brown and gold hues seen in Cassini images of the southern hemisphere, due to preferential scattering of blue wavelengths by the cloud-free upper atmosphere.

The bright blue swath near Mimas is created by sunlight passing through the Cassini division, a 2,980-mile (4,800-kilometer) gap in the ring system. The rightmost part of this distinctive feature is slightly overexposed and therefore bright white in this image.

Shadows of several thin ringlets within the division can be seen here as well. The dark band that stretches across the center of the image is the shadow of Saturn’s B ring, the densest of the main rings. Part of the actual Cassini division appears at bottom, along with the A ring and the narrow, outer F ring. The A ring is transparent enough that, from this viewing angle, the atmosphere and threadlike shadows cast by the inner C ring are visible through it.

The image was made Nov. 7 and released yesterday.

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: NASA/Space Science Institute