NASA's
Cassini spacecraft catches a clutch of moons and rings locked in orbit around
its gas giant parent.
Saturn’s
hazy moon Titan sits at the top of this mosaic, where Cassini has spotted
complex atmospheric and geological processes
in action.
The small,
bright spot in the center is Epimetheus, one of Saturn’s “ring moons” that
hovers near the planet’s ring boundaries. While the small moon – it spans just
72 miles (116 kilometers) in diameters – appears as little more than a bright
speck here, Cassini has recorded a much closer
view of the satellite during an earlier pass on March 30, 2005.
Running
left from Epimetheus is Saturn’s F ring, noted for its bright core, and the
outer edges of the A ring (the inner, leftmost loop). Cassini’s narrow-angle
camera, which took two images to make this mosaic, also shows several ringlets
inside the F ring, which lend a wispy quality when compared to Saturn’s
sharply-defined A ring.
Last, but
not least, is Tethys,
Saturn’s scarred satellite which has endured impact and impact throughout its
history. One of the icy moons of Saturn’s, Tethys has a density close to that
of water. Astronomers believe that icy tectonic shifting across its frozen
landscape has led to the formation of features such as an immense canyon system
known as Ithaca Chasma.
Picking out
the closest object in this two-dimensional view may be difficult, but not so
for Cassini. Tethys is closest, sitting 700,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers)
away from the Saturn probe. Then comes Epithemeus, which hovers on the near side
of the rings about 900,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers). Despite its apparent
size, Titan is the furthest from Cassini, and is about 1.7 million miles (2.7
million kilometers) distant. Cassini took this image on Feb. 16, 2005 at
resolutions ranging from four miles (seven kilometers) per pixel at Tethys to
10 miles (16 kilometers) on Titan.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science
Institute
