Rings and Moons
Date: 21 June 2004
Satellite: Cassini
Depicts: Saturn's Rings
Copyright: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Saturn's magnificent rings show some of their intricate structure in this image taken on 11 May 2004, by the Cassini spacecraft's narrow angle camera. Although they appear to be solid structures, the rings are composed of billions of individual particles, each one orbiting the planet on its own path.
Satellites visible in this image: Janus (181 kilometres across) above the rings, and icy Enceladus (499 kilometres across) below the rings. The F ring shepherd moons Prometheus and Pandora can be seen along Saturn's outermost F ring if the image is further contrast enhanced. The image was taken in visible light from a distance of 26.3 million kilometres from Saturn. The image scale is 158 kilometres per pixel. Contrast in the image was enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
