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Saturn's rings

author: Nasa/JPL/SSI/Novapix

reference: a-sat05-10012

Image Size 300 DPI: 12 * 10 cm

Saturn's rings burst out of shadow and curve gracefully around the planet. Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across at its widest point) appears as a bright speck touching the inside of the narrow F ring. Atlas (30 kilometers, 19 miles across at its widest point) is also visible, faintly, upward and to the left of Prometheus, just outside the A ring edge. Saturn's shadow cuts across the rings at top right. Several dark, narrow spokes are faintly visible near the B-ring ansa, left of center. This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 13 degrees above the ringplane. 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 July 4, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (775,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 71 kilometers (44 miles) per pixel.

Keywords for this photo:

2008 - ASTRONOMY - ATLAS - CASSINI - ICE - PLANET - PROMETHEUS - RING - SATELLITE - SATURN - SATURN'S MOON -