Galerie de photos des anneaux de la planète Saturne

<h1>PIA08824: Spiral Density Waves</h1><div class="PIA08824" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Several spiral density waves in Saturn's A ring are seen in this detailed view. There is a grainy texture visible between the brightness peaks in the most prominent wave. Scientists think the graininess might be indicative of self-gravitating clumps of material that are formed by the spiraling wave.</p><p>Downward in the image represents the direction toward Saturn. This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 42 degrees below the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 8, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 300,000 kilometers (200,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 27 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (4,580 feet) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08824" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08824: Spiral Density Waves sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08824: Spiral Density Waves sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08824: Spiral Density Waves
<h1>PIA08825: Science at the Shadow Boundary</h1><div class="PIA08825" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Saturn's shadow cloaks the faint D ring at the bottom of this image.</p><p>Observations of the shadow boundary, like this one, enable scientists to clearly detect and measure the brightness of diffuse and faint ring features like the inner part of the D-ring. Such brightness measurements are often difficult to make, but the shadow region provides a very dark standard against which to compare the D ring, as the only brightness in the shadow is provided by the background of space.</p><p>The bright specks across the scene, both in the bright rings and in the shadow, are either stars or cosmic ray hits on the camera's detector.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 42 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 12, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 152 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08825" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08825: Science at the Shadow Boundary sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08825: Science at the Shadow Boundary sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08825: Science at the Shadow Boundary
<h1>PIA08826: Pan Speeds into Darkness</h1><div class="PIA08826" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft looks down at the unlit side of the rings as Pan heads into Saturn's shadow. The moon is accompanied by faint ringlets in the Encke Gap.</p><p>At bottom, the bright F ring core fades slowly into darkness.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 20 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 15, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 163 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08826" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08826: Pan Speeds into Darkness sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08826: Pan Speeds into Darkness sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08826: Pan Speeds into Darkness
<h1>PIA08827: A Faint Ring Shines</h1><div class="PIA08827" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A recently discovered diffuse ringlet shines brightly in the Cassini Division as Mimas cruises past at bottom.</p><p>Most of the main rings are comprised of particles ranging from marble-size to house-size. In contrast, the brightness of this ringlet (seen right of center) when viewed at a high phase angle (the Sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle) indicates it contains a large quantity of microscopic particles, which were likely generated by the disruption of a larger body. Such an event was probably recent, since this ringlet was not observed by the Voyager spacecraft in 1980 and 1981.</p><p>This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 1 degree below the ringplane. Mimas, which is in the foreground between Cassini and the rings, is 397 kilometers (247 miles) wide. See <a href="/catalog/PIA08330">PIA08330</a> and <a href="/catalog/PIA08331">PIA08331</a> for other views of the new ringlet.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 18, 2006 and from a phase angle of 140 degrees. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08827" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08827: A Faint Ring Shines sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08827: A Faint Ring Shines sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08827: A Faint Ring Shines
<h1>PIA08831: Aging Spokes</h1><div class="PIA08831" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Old spokes never die, they just fade away. That is the current thinking of scientists who study these ephemeral features in Saturn's rings.</p><p>This "difference image" is actually a composite of two images of the B ring, taken about 45 seconds apart. The view illustrates how the several spokes imaged here moved between exposures. The spokes were bright against the rings in both original images, but the brightness of the earlier image was reversed so that the spoke movement is easy to discern. The "dark" image of the spokes was taken first, thus rotation in the scene is toward the bottom.</p><p>The topmost spoke is about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) long and about 600 kilometers (370 miles) wide. The separation between the top spoke and the bottom one is about 8,500 kilometers (5,300 miles).</p><p>The available evidence seems to indicate that spokes are radial when generated and then shear out as they orbit the planet, eventually dispersing and fading out after about three and one-half hours.</p><p>All of these spokes are nearly radial on their trailing (top) edges, except for the thin, bottommost spoke. That spoke and the wedge-shaped one above it have a shear of about 38 degrees, meaning they have an age of about two and one-quarter hours, assuming they were first radial and then sheared their entire lives. </p><p>The faint horizontal banding in the image is due to "noise" in the spacecraft electronics that was picked up by the camera system and enhanced by the processing technique used here.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 32 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The two images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 1, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08831" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08831: Aging Spokes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08831: Aging Spokes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08831: Aging Spokes
<h1>PIA08832: Arc and Crescent</h1><div class="PIA08832" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Crescent Saturn is girded by its dark belt of ice in this marvelous portrait of the planet and the "dark" side of its rings. This is the unlit side of the rings, where sunlight filters feebly through the lanes of particles.</p><p>This view is a mosaic of two images. No data were taken to fill in the missing block in the upper left quadrant, and the inner part of the rings is cut off there.</p><p>This view was acquired from about 4 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 727 nanometers on Nov. 6, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 148 degrees. Image scale is 77 kilometers (48 miles) per pixel.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08832" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08832: Arc and Crescent sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08832: Arc and Crescent sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08832: Arc and Crescent
<h1>PIA08833: Perfect Dark</h1><div class="PIA08833" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Streaks of cloud are overlain with graceful ring shadows in this view of Saturn's northern latitudes. </p><p>Structure is visible in the shadow of the A ring and Cassini Division, which widen at the highest latitudes, near lower right. The lower left half of the image does not show the blackness of space, but rather the shadow of the B ring, which is perfectly dark here.</p><p>The image was acquired from a high inclination above the planet's ring plane and looks obliquely toward the limb. (The region shown would be downward and to the left of the view presented in <a href="/catalog/PIA08822">PIA08822</a>.)</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers on Oct. 30, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 142 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08833" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08833: Perfect Dark sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08833: Perfect Dark sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08833: Perfect Dark
<h1>PIA08834: World of Contrast</h1><div class="PIA08834" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The contrast is sharp between the outer portion of the A ring edge and the ring's main body. One explanation for this is that the outer A ring region contains smaller particles (around 1 centimeter or 0.4 inches in radius) than the main rings, allowing more opportunities for light scattering before it scatters toward the camera.</p><p>Ringlets in the Encke Gap and flanking the bright F ring core are clearly visible here.</p><p>This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 4 degrees below the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers on Nov. 7, 2006. Cassini was then at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 140 degrees. Image scale on the NASA/JPL/Space Science Institutesky at the distance of Saturn is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08834" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08834: World of Contrast sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08834: World of Contrast sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08834: World of Contrast
<h1>PIA08836: Intriguing Texture</h1><div class="PIA08836" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This close-up of the inner edge of the Cassini Division shows an enormous amount of structure, including a grainy texture in the bright outer B ring material near the gap edge.</p><p>An extreme enhancement of the original image, presented at right, reveals the grainy region with greater clarity.</p><p>This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 54 degrees below the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 8, 2006 at a distance of approximately 378,000 kilometers (235,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 68 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08836" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08836: Intriguing Texture sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08836: Intriguing Texture sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08836: Intriguing Texture
<h1>PIA08837: Encircling Saturn</h1><div class="PIA08837" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Saturn's sunlit rings gleam in the blackness as two icy moons cruise past in the foreground.</p><p>Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) is a small crescent near upper left; Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is a speck above the F ring, near center. Janus was brightened slightly for visibility.</p><p>This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 5 degrees below the ringplane.</p><p>This image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 7, 2006, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 139 degrees. Image scale on the sky at the distance of Saturn is 63 kilometers (39 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08837" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08837: Encircling Saturn sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08837: Encircling Saturn sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08837: Encircling Saturn
<h1>PIA08840: The Rings' Variety</h1><div class="PIA08840" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This expansive view takes in most of Saturn's main ring system, from the outer C ring to the narrow and knotted-looking F ring. The broad brightness plateaus in the C ring (at bottom) transform into the more densely populated (and thus darker in this viewing geometry) B ring. The rings' appearance becomes brighter and smoother beyond the bands of the Cassini Division, in the A ring.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 49 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 21, 2006 at a distance of approximately 539,000 kilometers (335,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 98 degrees. Image scale is 29 kilometers (18 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08840" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08840: The Rings' Variety sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08840: The Rings' Variety sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08840: The Rings' Variety
<h1>PIA08843: Stretching the Gores</h1><div class="PIA08843" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A close-up of the F ring shows dark gores in its interior faint ringlets following the passage of Prometheus. Each gore represents a single interaction of the moon with the F ring material. The gores shear out over successive orbits, becoming the long, curving features seen here.</p><p>The dark Keeler gap (42 kilometers, or 26 miles wide) is seen at right. The F ring core is similar in scale to the gap, at about 50 kilometers (30 miles) in width.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 31 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08843" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08843: Stretching the Gores sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08843: Stretching the Gores sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08843: Stretching the Gores
<h1>PIA08844: Saturnian Squiggles</h1><div class="PIA08844" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Storms whip up the cloud bands of Saturn's southern hemisphere in this infrared view. Small fractions of the A and F rings are visible at right.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of light centered at 890 nanometers. The view was acquired on Dec. 1, 2006 at a distance of approximately 910,000 kilometers (566,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 130 degrees. Image scale is 51 kilometers (32 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08844" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08844: Saturnian Squiggles sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08844: Saturnian Squiggles sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08844: Saturnian Squiggles
<h1>PIA08845: The "Gore-y" Details</h1><div class="PIA08845" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The striated appearance of the F ring is immediately apparent in the region of the ring that trails behind the moon Prometheus. The F ring is characterized here by dark gores that stretch inward toward the planet and forward in the direction of motion.</p><p>This image has been expanded in the horizontal direction by a factor of five in order to make radial variations more prominent. The curvature of the rings is also exaggerated by the horizontal stretch.</p><p>The exterior flanking ringlets (to the right of the bright ring core) are not disturbed by Prometheus to the great degree seen in the inner ringlets.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 31 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 25, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Scale in the original image is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08845" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08845: The "Gore-y" Details sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08845: The "Gore-y" Details sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08845: The "Gore-y" Details
<h1>PIA08846: At Opposition</h1><div class="PIA08846" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>With the Sun directly behind Cassini, the spacecraft spies the opposition surge in Saturn's inner A ring. The opposition effect becomes visible from this special viewing geometry. See <a href="/catalog/PIA08247">PIA08247</a> for a detailed description of the effect.</p><p>This view looks toward the rings from about 11 degrees below the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 2, 2006 at a distance of approximately 287,000 kilometers (178,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08846" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08846: At Opposition sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08846: At Opposition sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08846: At Opposition
<h1>PIA08847: Moon and Its Handiwork</h1><div class="PIA08847" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Prometheus interacts gravitationally with the inner flanking ringlets of the F ring, creating dark channels as it passes.</p><p>This image was taken in a complete azimuthal scan of the rings, during which Cassini followed Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) around the rings for one complete orbit, or about 14 hours.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 41 degrees above the ringplane. The moon is partly lit by sunlight (at left) and elsewhere lit by reflected light from Saturn.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Prometheus and at a Sun-Prometheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 152 degrees. Image scale is 9 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08847" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08847: Moon and Its Handiwork sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08847: Moon and Its Handiwork sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08847: Moon and Its Handiwork
<h1>PIA08849: Act of Creation</h1><div class="PIA08849" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Prometheus dips into the inner F ring at its farthest point from Saturn in its orbit, creating a dark gore and a corresponding bright streamer. Gores created during previous apoapsis (the name for the farthest point in an orbit) passes, are seen above. The older gores are farther behind the moon in its orbit of Saturn.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 31 degrees above the ringplane. Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) across.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 1, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08849" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08849: Act of Creation sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08849: Act of Creation sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08849: Act of Creation
<h1>PIA08850: The Vanishing Rings</h1><div class="PIA08850" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Saturn's entire main ring system spreads out below Cassini in this night side view, which shows the rings disappearing into the planet's shadow.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 48 degrees above the ringplane. In the upper right corner lies the darkened northern hemisphere; beneath it, the lit side of the rings casts reflected sunlight, or ringshine, onto southern latitudes, lighting up the skies there. A sliver of light from Saturn's sunlit side pierces the top of the image.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 5, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 69 kilometers (43 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08850" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08850: The Vanishing Rings sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08850: The Vanishing Rings sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08850: The Vanishing Rings
<h1>PIA08852: The Spoke Boundary</h1><div class="PIA08852" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This ringscape shows the outermost part of the rings' spoke-forming region, the other edge of the B ring, and the regular bands of material within the Cassini Division. Spokes are only seen in Saturn's B ring, interior to the Cassini Division.</p><p>Several very faint spokes are visible at left, above center. Also on the left half of the image are variations in brightness along the direction of particle motion, a commonly seen feature in the spoke-forming region.</p><p>The Cassini Division is the region to the right of the brightest ringlet in the image. This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 20 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 9, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08852" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08852: The Spoke Boundary sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08852: The Spoke Boundary sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08852: The Spoke Boundary
<h1>PIA08853: Veil of Ice</h1><div class="PIA08853" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft stares toward Saturn through its gauzy veil of rings. The great ice-particle screen acts like a filter here, attenuating the glare from the planet and making its high altitude haze easy to see.</p><p>The F ring shows off the faint ringlets flanking its core, and a single ringlet can be seen in the Encke Gap, crossing through center.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 4, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 161 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08853" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08853: Veil of Ice sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08853: Veil of Ice sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08853: Veil of Ice
<h1>PIA08855: Scintillating C Ring</h1><div class="PIA08855" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Both luminous and translucent, the C ring sweeps out of the darkness of Saturn's shadow and obscures the planet at lower left. The ring is characterized by broad, isolated bright areas, or "plateaus," surrounded by fainter material.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 19 degrees above the ringplane. North on Saturn is up. The dark, inner B ring is seen at lower right.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 15, 2006 at a distance of approximately 632,000 kilometers (393,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 56 degrees. Image scale is 34 kilometers (21 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08855" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08855: Scintillating C Ring sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08855: Scintillating C Ring sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08855: Scintillating C Ring
<h1>PIA08859: Stars and Stripes ... and Spokes</h1><div class="PIA08859" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>From on high, the Cassini spacecraft spots a group of faint spokes against the striped landscape of the B ring, the dark region in the middle of the rings here. The spokes appear as irregular blotches, bright against the unlit side of the rings.</p><p>Outside the rings, at about the two o'clock position in the image, is the moon Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across). The two points of light below center, on both sides of the F ring, are not the shepherd moons Prometheus and Pandora, but rather, are stars in the background. Other faint stars are also visible in the image.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 46 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 20, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 144 degrees. Image scale is 109 kilometers (68 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08859" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08859: Stars and Stripes ... and Spokes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08859: Stars and Stripes ... and Spokes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08859: Stars and Stripes ... and Spokes
<h1>PIA08860: Toward Morning</h1><div class="PIA08860" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft looks toward daybreak on Saturn through the delicate strands of the C ring. Some structure and contrast is visible in the clouds far below.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 862 nanometers. The view was acquired on Nov. 4, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08860" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08860: Toward Morning sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08860: Toward Morning sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08860: Toward Morning
<h1>PIA08861: The Bends</h1><div class="PIA08861" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Bright undulations disturb a faint ringlet drifting through the center of the Encke Gap. This ring structure shares the orbit of the moon Pan.</p><p>A second, fainter ringlet is visible below the central ringlet.</p><p>This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about 44 degrees below the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 14, 2006 at a distance of approximately 462,000 kilometers (287,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 2 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08861" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08861: The Bends sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08861: The Bends sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08861: The Bends
<h1>PIA08862: Down Below</h1><div class="PIA08862" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft's current high-inclination orbit allows for some fantastic perspectives, like this shot of Saturn's south pole, which looks toward the rings beyond.<p></p>The dark bullseye at the pole marks the eye of a great hurricane-like storm investigated by Cassini in 2006. (See <a href="/catalog/PIA08332">PIA08332</a> Looking Saturn in the Eye.)<p></p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 728 nanometers. The view was acquired on Dec. 13, 2006 at a distance of approximately 790,000 kilometers (491,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 44 kilometers (27 miles) per pixel.<p></p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08862" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08862: Down Below sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08862: Down Below sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08862: Down Below
<h1>PIA08863: Breakup Captured?</h1><div class="PIA08863" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>These two images, taken about eight minutes apart, show clump-like structures and a great deal of dust in Saturn's ever-changing F ring. The images show an object-interior to and detached from the bright core of the F ring that appears to be breaking up into discrete clumps. </p><p>Cassini scientists have been monitoring clumps in the F ring for more than two years now, trying to understand whether these represent small permanent moonlets or transient aggregates of material. (See <a href="/catalog/PIA07716">PIA07716</a>.)</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 35 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 23, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08863" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08863: Breakup Captured? sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08863: Breakup Captured? sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08863: Breakup Captured?
<h1>PIA08865: Unknown Origin</h1><div class="PIA08865" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft continues to observe brightness variations along the orbital direction within Saturn's B ring.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 53 degrees above the ringplane.</p><p>The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 17, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08865" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08865: Unknown Origin sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08865: Unknown Origin sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08865: Unknown Origin
<h1>PIA08866: Agitators of the Atmosphere</h1><div class="PIA08866" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Two bright vortices roll across the cloud-lined face of Saturn, where winds howl at high speeds never experienced on Earth.</p><p>This view was acquired at about the same time as <a href="/catalog/PIA08864">PIA08864</a> but the planet appears darker here. This is because the spectral filter used to acquire this image looks at a part of the spectrum where methane absorption in Saturn's atmosphere is stronger. Thus, photons do not penetrate as deep into the Saturn atmosphere as they do at the wavelengths observed in <a href="/catalog/PIA08864">PIA08864</a>. Since more photons are absorbed here, the planet looks darker.</p><p>The icy particles composing the rings do not contain methane, and therefore appear bright relative to Saturn.</p><p>The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 862 nanometers. The view was obtained using the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 13, 2006 at a distance of approximately 775,000 kilometers (481,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 43 kilometers (27 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08866" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08866: Agitators of the Atmosphere sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08866: Agitators of the Atmosphere sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08866: Agitators of the Atmosphere
<h1>PIA08867: Epimetheus and the Dark Side</h1><div class="PIA08867" lang="en" style="width:712px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Epimetheus is a lonely dot beyond Saturn's rings. The little moon appears at lower left, outside the narrow F ring.</p><p>Several very faint spokes lurk in the B ring, at right.</p><p>This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 49 degrees above the ringplane. Epimetheus is 116 kilometers (72 miles) across.</p><p>The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 17, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 63 kilometers (39 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08867" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08867: Epimetheus and the Dark Side sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08867: Epimetheus and the Dark Side sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08867: Epimetheus and the Dark Side
<h1>PIA08869: The Inner Rings</h1><div class="PIA08869" lang="en" style="width:700px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft looks toward the innermost region of Saturn's rings, capturing (from right to left) the C and B rings. The dark, inner edge of the Cassini Division is just visible in the lower left corner. (The innermost D ring is too faint to be clearly seen here.)</p><p>The image looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 50 degrees above the ringplane. Thus, from this perspective, the Sun's light makes particles visible as it scatters through the rings toward the camera.</p><p>The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 17, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 64 kilometers (40 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08869" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08869: The Inner Rings sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08869: The Inner Rings sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08869: The Inner Rings