Night side Ringplane
Date: 30 November 2004
Satellite: Cassini
Depicts: Saturn's rings
Copyright: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
The usually bright B ring (at centre) appears very dim in this view of the rings taken on the side of the rings that is not illuminated. The scene resembles a photographic negative, with bright and dark areas reversed (although in some places in the rings, the blackness of space is seen). From this viewing angle, the rings are lit from below: both dense and empty regions are dark, and regions of intermediate particle density are bright.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera on 27 October 2004, at a distance of about 631 000 kilometres from Saturn through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of visible violet light. The image scale is 34 kilometres per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
