11 August 2007
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
NASA recently published an exquisite image of Saturn's magnificent rings, acquired by the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft. The image is a view of the dark side of the rings, displaying crisp detail and sharp contrast.
Saturn's tiny moon Atlas (32 km across) is visible as a faint dot (above center), between the A and F rings. This view was acquired from about 1° above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with Cassini's narrow-angle camera on 21 June 2007. The spacecraft was approximately 2.4 million km from Atlas. Image scale is 14 km per pixel.
Further Reading
The Cassini-Huygens Mission
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist