PIA06586: Bound to Saturn
 Target Name:  Saturn
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Cassini-Huygens
 Spacecraft:  Cassini Orbiter
 Instrument:  ISS - Narrow Angle
 Product Size:  1024 x 832 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  CICLOPS/Space Science Institute
 Primary Data Set:  Cassini
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA06586.tif (655.7 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA06586.jpg (74.05 kB)


Original Caption Released with Image:

Saturn's complex rings are both an intriguing scientific puzzle and a supreme natural wonder. This view shows, from upper right to lower left, the thin C ring, multi-toned B ring, the dark Cassini Division, the A ring and narrow F ring.

At the bottom, Saturn's moon Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) orbits about 45,000 kilometers (28,000 miles) beyond the bright core of the F ring. The little moon is heavily cratered and is thought to be largely composed of water ice. The bright speck just outside of (below) the F ring is the shepherd moon Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across).

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 19, 2005, at a distance of 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel. Pandora was brightened by a factor of seven to aid visibility.



Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Image Addition Date: