Cassini Takes New Images of Saturn's Moons

By Space.com Staff
published

Cassini Takes New Images of Saturn's Moons
This unprocessed image of Prometheus was taken by Cassini on Jan. 27, 2010. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 36,000 kilometers (23,000 miles) from Prometheus. (Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

Newimages from NASA's Cassini spacecraft offer close-ups of two of Saturn's moons.

 

Thepictures, raw and unprocessed, were released today.

 

Apicture of the moon Prometheus was taken from a distance of about 23,000 miles(36,000 km). Prometheus is a potato-shaped satellite is about 63 miles (102 km)long. It is embedded inSaturn's rings.

 

Aphoto of Dione was mad from about 29,000 miles (46,000 km) away.

 

Dioneis an icy ball. It has a radius of 348 miles (560 kilometers) and orbits Saturnevery 2.73 days from 234,505 miles (377,400 kilometers) away.

 

Dione'saverage surface temperature is minus 303 Fahrenheit (-186 Celsius). It iscovered by smooth plains and not too many craters ? all a sign ofcryovolcanism, or an outpouring of icy liquid from the interior.

 

 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
News and editorial team

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.