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> Saturn and Rhea seen by Cassini

Saturn and Rhea seen by Cassini

author: Nasa/JPL/SSI/Novapix

reference: a-sat05-10045

Image Size 300 DPI: 13 * 13 cm

Like a silvery pearl, an icy moon crosses the face of Saturn, while two of its siblings cast shadows onto the planet. Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) hangs in the foreground. Near upper left on Saturn is the small shadow of Mimas. Near lower right is the penumbral shadow of Iapetus -- the part of the moon's shadow where Iapetus does not completely block the sun. This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane. The rings' shadows drape across the northern hemisphere. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 15, 2007, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (744,000 miles) from Rhea and 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 71 kilometers (44 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 103 kilometers (64 miles) on Saturn.

Keywords for this photo:

2007 - ASTRONOMY - CASSINI - ICE - PLANET - RHEA - SATELLITE - SATURN - SATURN'S MOON - SHADOW -