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> Saturn rings edge-on with satellites
Saturn rings edge-on with satellites
author: Nasa/Novapix
reference: a-sat02-00003
Image Size 300 DPI: 20 * 14 cm
This is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope snapshot of Saturn with its rings barely visible. Earth was almost in the plane of Saturn's rings, thus the rings appear edge-on. In the top view, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is casting a shadow on Saturn. Titan's atmosphere is a dark brown haze. The other moons appear white because of their bright, icy surfaces. Four moons - from left to right, Mimas, Tethys, Janus, and Enceladus - are clustered around the edge of Saturn's rings on the right. Two other moons appear in front of the ring plane. Prometheus is on the right edge; Pandora,on the left. The rings also are casting a shadow on Saturn because the Sun was above the ring plane.
Bottom image: the moon called Dione, on the lower right, is casting a long, thin shadow across the whole ring system due to the setting Sun on the ring plane. The moon on the upper left of Saturn is Tethys. The color images were assembled from separate exposures taken August 6 (top) and November 17 (bottom), 1995 with the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2.
Bottom image: the moon called Dione, on the lower right, is casting a long, thin shadow across the whole ring system due to the setting Sun on the ring plane. The moon on the upper left of Saturn is Tethys. The color images were assembled from separate exposures taken August 6 (top) and November 17 (bottom), 1995 with the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2.
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