Galerie de photos des anneaux de la planète Saturne

<h1>PIA07515: Moon Against the Shadows</h1><div class="PIA07515" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This spectacular and disorienting maze of lines is a Cassini portrait of the gas giant Saturn, its rings and its small, icy moon Mimas. The rings cast dark shadows across Saturn's northern hemisphere, creating a photonegative effect: dark sections are dense and block the Sun, while bright sections are less dense areas or gaps in the rings, which are more transparent to sunlight.</p><p>Saturn's moon Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is seen here against the backdrop created by the shadow of the dense B ring. Above Mimas and the B ring shadow can be seen the broad gap of the Cassini Division. The actual Cassini Division, which divides the A and B rings, is visible about one-third of the way up from the bottom of the image.</p><p>This view was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 15, 2004, at a distance of approximately 4.7 million kilometers (2.9 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 28 kilometers (17 miles) per pixel. </p><p>This image was taken from beneath the plane of Saturn's rings. It is similar to the serene portrait provided by Cassini in a natural color view from November, 2004 (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06142">PIA06142</a>).</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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07515" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07515: Moon Against the Shadows sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07515: Moon Against the Shadows sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07515: Moon Against the Shadows
<h1>PIA07520: What's That Speck?</h1><div class="PIA07520" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Cassini's climb to progressively higher elevations reveals the "negative" side of Saturn's rings. As the Sun shines through the rings, they take on the appearance of a photonegative: the dense B ring (at the center) blocks much of the incoming light, while the less dense regions scatter and transmit light.</p><p>Close inspection reveals not one, but two moons in this scene. Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is easily visible near the upper right, but the shepherd moon Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) can also be seen. Prometheus is a dark spot against the far side of the thin, bright F ring. Most of Prometheus' sunlit side is turned away from Cassini in this view.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 15, 2005, at a distance of approximately 570,000 kilometers (350,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 30 kilometers (19 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07520" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07520: What's That Speck? sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07520: What's That Speck? sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07520: What's That Speck?
<h1>PIA07521: Funhouse Atmosphere</h1><div class="PIA07521" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Saturn's atmosphere is essentially transparent at wavelengths visible to the human eye, but when the view through the atmosphere is oblique, as it is along the planet's limb (edge), it will distort anything seen through it. The refracted image of the rings in this image taken by Cassini of Saturn's night side abruptly terminates where Saturn's high-altitude haze becomes opaque.</p><p>Saturn's F ring shepherd moon Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) hovers below the center. Had an image like this been taken a few minutes earlier, the appearance of Prometheus would also have been warped.</p><p>Near the left edge of the image, the appearance of the Encke Gap in Saturn's rings is being refracted. As the gap emerges from behind the planet, its image is bent less and less, following the decreasing density profile of the atmosphere with altitude. The appearance of the Cassini Division is warped as well, near the top of this scene. The refraction effect is slightly different in this visible light image than in a previously released infrared view (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06656">PIA06656</a>).</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 28, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Saturn. The 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07521" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07521: Funhouse Atmosphere sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07521: Funhouse Atmosphere sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07521: Funhouse Atmosphere
<h1>PIA07522: Four Views of the F Ring</h1><div class="PIA07522" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This montage of four images of Saturn's knotted F ring shows different locations around the ring, even though all taken within a few hours of each other. There is considerable variation in the structure of the ring at these four locations.</p><p>For example, the number of ring strands differs from image to image. And in some images, kinks are clearly visible in the ring, while others regions appear more smooth.</p><p>Astronomers believe that the structure of Saturn's F ring is governed by its shepherding moons, Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) and Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across). The ring's appearance is expected to vary depending on how recently a ring section has encountered each moon and how close the moon came to the ring.</p><p>These images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 3 and 4, 2005, from below the ringplane and at distances ranging from 735,000 to 952,000 kilometers (457,000 to 592,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale ranges from 4 to 6 kilometers (2 to 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07522" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07522: Four Views of the F Ring sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07522: Four Views of the F Ring sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07522: Four Views of the F Ring
<h1>PIA07523: Pandora's Flocks</h1><div class="PIA07523" lang="en" style="width:534px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The shepherd moon, Pandora, is seen here alongside the narrow F ring that it helps maintain. Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.</p><p>Cassini obtained this view from about four degrees above the ringplane. Captured here are several faint, dusty ringlets in the vicinity of the F ring core. The ringlets do not appear to be perturbed to the degree seen in the core.</p><p>The appearance of Pandora here is exciting, as the moon's complete shape can be seen, thanks to reflected light from Saturn, which illuminates Pandora's dark side. The hint of a crater is visible on the dark side of the moon.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 4, 2005, at a distance of approximately 967,000 kilometers (601,000 miles) from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 117 degrees. The image scale 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07523" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07523: Pandora's Flocks sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07523: Pandora's Flocks sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07523: Pandora's Flocks
<h1>PIA07533: Resonant Effects</h1><div class="PIA07533" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This view shows Saturn's Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide) whose center is 133,590 kilometers (83,010 miles) from Saturn. This division in the rings is home to the small moon called Pan (20 kilometers, or 12 miles across).</p><p>The four bright bands - two on either side of the gap - are density waves generated by gravitational resonances with Prometheus and Pandora. The rest of the ring structures seen here are "wakes."</p><p>Like a placid lake surface disturbed by a boat, ring particles near the gap have their orbits perturbed by Pan's gravity, organizing themselves into wakes that stream away from the moon. The spacing of these wakes (their wavelength) increases with distance from the gap, as can be seen here.</p><p>Unlike most waves in the rings, wakes do not propagate or sustain themselves; rather, they preserve the memory of a single event (a passing of Pan in its orbit). These ripples are surprisingly persistent. In this image, for example, Pan is 120 degrees farther around the planet from this location, and the wakes here were generated as long as four months before the image was taken. Scientists are working to revise models of how ring wakes evolve using data from Cassini.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 332,000 kilometers (206,000 miles) from Saturn. The 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07533" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07533: Resonant Effects sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07533: Resonant Effects sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07533: Resonant Effects
<h1>PIA07543: Rings At Opposition</h1><div class="PIA07543" lang="en" style="width:760px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>When Cassini gazes down at Saturn's rings with the Sun directly behind the spacecraft, an unusual phenomenon called the "opposition effect" can be seen. The effect is visible here as a bright region, near right, toward the inner edge of the A ring.</p><p>The precise nature of the effect at Saturn is still under scrutiny by imaging scientists. However the effect in Saturn's rings can be witnessed from Earth, when the viewing conditions are right. It can also be seen in photographs of the lunar surface taken by the Apollo astronauts.</p><p>To understand the effect, imagine an observer standing on a dry, sandy beach. When the Sun is directly behind the observer, the shadows cast by the grains in the field of view in front of the observer will fall directly behind the grains and will not be visible. When the Sun is at any other angle relative to the observer, the shadows cast by the grains will be visible to the observer. These shadows in the field of view make the scene a bit darker. This effect would cause a centrally bright spot to appear on the sandy surface in the first case, but not in the second.</p><p>For Cassini, the opposition effect is seen when the angle between the Sun, the rings and the spacecraft is extremely close to zero. For the sequence of images during which this view was obtained, Cassini maintained this viewing angle and the bright spot appeared to move across the rings with the spacecraft's motion.</p><p>The moon Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles, across) is seen here at lower left.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 7, 2005, at a distance of approximately 738,000 kilometers (458,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 40 kilometers (25 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07543" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07543: Rings At Opposition sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07543: Rings At Opposition sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07543: Rings At Opposition
<h1>PIA07544: F Ring Shepherds</h1><div class="PIA07544" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Saturn's moons Prometheus and Pandora are captured here in a single image taken from less than a degree above the dark side of Saturn's rings. Pandora is on the right, and Prometheus is on the left. Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) across. Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.</p><p>The two moons are separated by about 69,000 kilometers (43,000 miles) in this view.</p><p>The F ring, extending farthest to the right, contains a great deal of fine, icy material that is more the size of dust than the boulders thought to comprise the dense B ring. These tiny particles are particularly bright from this viewing geometry, especially at right near the ansa, or edge.</p><p>At left of center, a couple of ringlets within the Encke gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide) can also be easily seen due to their fine dust-sized material. The other dark features in the rings are density waves and bending waves.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 20, 2005, when Cassini was a mean distance of 1.85 million kilometers (1.15 million miles) from the moons. The image scale is about 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on both moons.</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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07544" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07544: F Ring Shepherds sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07544: F Ring Shepherds sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07544: F Ring Shepherds
<h1>PIA07551: Dim on the Darkside</h1><div class="PIA07551" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This view shows the unlit side of Saturn's splendid rings made visible by sunlight filtering through the rings from the lit side. Light from the illuminated side of the rings brightens the night side of the planet's southern hemisphere with "ringshine" (seen here at lower right). The feeble glow from transmitted light dimly illuminates the planet's northern half.</p><p>Saturn's shadow stretches across the rings toward lower left.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 477,000 kilometers (296,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 25 kilometers (15 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07551" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07551: Dim on the Darkside sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07551: Dim on the Darkside sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07551: Dim on the Darkside
<h1>PIA07552: Beyond the Limb</h1><div class="PIA07552" lang="en" style="width:504px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Turbulent swirls churn in Saturn's atmosphere while the planet's rings form a dazzling backdrop. The rings' complex structure is clearly evident in this view.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 15, 2005, through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 727 nanometers at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 72 degrees. The image scale is 28 kilometers (17 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07552" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07552: Beyond the Limb sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07552: Beyond the Limb sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07552: Beyond the Limb
<h1>PIA07556: Opposition View</h1><div class="PIA07556" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The "opposition effect" can be seen in this image of Saturn's B ring. The bright spot occurs where the angle between the spacecraft, the Sun and the rings is near zero. Studies of the opposition effect on Saturn's rings may help scientists constrain some of the properties of ring particles, such as their sizes and spatial distribution.</p><p>Another recently released image from Cassini also shows this interesting effect of viewing geometry (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07543">PIA07543</a>).</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 26, 2005, at a distance of approximately 478,000 kilometers (297,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 3 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07556" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07556: Opposition View sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07556: Opposition View sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07556: Opposition View
<h1>PIA07558: Two F Ring Views</h1><div class="PIA07558" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>These views, taken two hours apart, demonstrate the dramatic variability in the structure of Saturn's intriguing F ring.</p><p>In the image at the left, ringlets in the F ring and Encke Gap display distinctive kinks, and there is a bright patch of material on the F ring's inner edge. Saturn's moon Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) is shown here, partly illuminated by reflected light from the planet.</p><p>At the right, Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles across) orbits ahead of the radial striations in the F ring, called "drapes" by scientists. The drapes appear to be caused by successive passes of Prometheus as it reaches the greatest distance (apoapse) in its orbit of Saturn. Also in this image, the outermost ringlet visible in the Encke Gap displays distinctive bright patches.</p><p>These views were obtained from about three degrees below the ring plane.</p><p>The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 29, 2005, when Cassini was about 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</p><p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07558" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07558: Two F Ring Views sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07558: Two F Ring Views sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07558: Two F Ring Views
<h1>PIA07559: Luminescent Rings</h1><div class="PIA07559" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This view shows the unlit face of Saturn's rings, visible via scattered and transmitted light. In these views, dark regions represent gaps and areas of higher particle densities, while brighter regions are filled with less dense concentrations of ring particles.</p><p>The dim right side of the image contains nearly the entire C ring. The brighter region in the middle is the inner B ring, while the darkest part represents the dense outer B Ring. The Cassini Division and the innermost part of the A ring are at the upper-left.</p><p>Saturn's shadow carves a dark triangle out of the lower right corner of this image.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 433,000 kilometers (269,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 22 kilometers (14 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 http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07559" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07559: Luminescent Rings sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07559: Luminescent Rings sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07559: Luminescent Rings
<h1>PIA07568: D is for "Dust"</h1><div class="PIA07568" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This close-up view is Cassini's best look yet at Saturn's tenuous innermost D ring. The narrow ringlet visible here is named "D68" and is the innermost discrete feature in the D ring. The image also clearly shows how the diffuse component of the D-ring tapers off as it approaches the planet.</p><p>The view is looking down on the dark side of the rings, with the planet's lower half being illuminated by reflected light from the rings. The upper half of the planet is also dark. The image was taken at a high phase angle -- the Sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle, which was 177 degrees. Viewing the rings at high phase angle makes the finest dusty particles visible.</p><p>The inner edge of the C ring enters the scene at the lower left, and Saturn's shadow cuts off the view of the rings. Several background stars can also be seen here.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 15, 2005, at a distance of approximately 293,000 kilometers (182,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07568" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07568: D is for "Dust" sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07568: D is for "Dust" sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07568: D is for "Dust"
<h1>PIA07569: Supreme Beauty</h1><div class="PIA07569" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Swirling cloud bands, delicate ring shadows and icy moons make the Saturn system a place of supreme natural beauty. Even Cassini's remarkable images can only provide the slightest sense of the experience of actually being there.</p><p>Tethys (at the right, 1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) and Mimas (near the center, 397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) are captured here against the planet's turbulent atmosphere.</p><p>Although the rings are only a thin strip from this angle, one can see the structure of the entire main ring system in its shadow on the planet -- from the C ring at the bottom to the faint specter of the F ring at the top.</p><p>The image was taken in visible violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 16, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 66 kilometers (41 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07569" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07569: Supreme Beauty sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07569: Supreme Beauty sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07569: Supreme Beauty
<h1>PIA07574: Ring Study Subjects</h1><div class="PIA07574" lang="en" style="width:734px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Cassini turns its gaze toward Saturn's outer A ring to find the moon Pan coasting behind one of the thin ringlets with which it shares the Encke Gap. Pan is 26 kilometers (16 miles) across.</p><p>Understanding the influence of Saturn's moons on its immense ring system is one of the goals of the Cassini mission. The study of the icy rings includes the delicate and smokey-looking F ring, seen here toward upper right. The F ring exhibits visibly bright kinks and multiple strands here.</p><p>Arching across the center of the scene, the outermost section of the A ring is notably brighter than the ring material interior to it.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 13, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 14 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel on Pan. </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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07574" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07574: Ring Study Subjects sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07574: Ring Study Subjects sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07574: Ring Study Subjects
<h1>PIA07576: On the Lookout for Spokes</h1><div class="PIA07576" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The extreme contrast in this view of the unlit side of Saturn's rings is intentional. Contrast-enhanced views like this are used to look for spokes (the transient, ghostly lanes of dust seen in NASA Voyager and Hubble Space Telescope images), but so far, none have been seen by Cassini.</p><p>The apparent absence of spokes is thought to be related to the Sun's elevation angle above the ringplane, which currently is rather high. As summer wanes in the southern hemisphere, the Sun's angle will drop, and spoke viewing is expected to become more favorable. </p><p>In unlit-side views, the denser ring regions (and empty gaps) appear dark, while less populated and dustier ring regions appear bright.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 3, 2005, at a distance of approximately 781,000 kilometers (485,000 miles) from Saturn. The 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07576" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07576: On the Lookout for Spokes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07576: On the Lookout for Spokes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07576: On the Lookout for Spokes
<h1>PIA07578: Diagnostic Darkness</h1><div class="PIA07578" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This magnificent view looks down upon, and partially through, Saturn's rings from their unlit side.</p><p>The densest part of the rings occults the bright globe of Saturn. Scientists can use observations like this to determine precisely the concentration of ring particles.</p><p>When the bright source is the signals coming from the spacecraft, the technique is called a 'radio occultation.' In a radio occultation measurement, a signal is beamed toward Earth from Cassini's 4-meter-wide (13-foot) high-gain antenna. Researchers on Earth receive the signal as the spacecraft passes behind the rings. The reduction in Cassini's radio signal tells researchers how densely packed the ring particles are. Scientists can also learn about the size distributions of the particles from occultations. </p><p>As an added (but tiny) bonus, Saturn's moon Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles across) is visible as a dark speck against the planet, just outside the A ring.</p><p>The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 2, 2005, at a distance of approximately 617,000 kilometers (383,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 37 kilometers (23 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 team is based at the Space Science Institute, 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07578" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07578: Diagnostic Darkness sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07578: Diagnostic Darkness sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07578: Diagnostic Darkness
<h1>PIA07579: Keeping Things in Check</h1><div class="PIA07579" lang="en" style="width:742px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>From just outside the faint edge of Saturn's F ring, the moon Pandora keeps watch over her fine-grained flock. The outer flanks of the F ring region are populated by ice particles approaching the size of the particles comprising smoke. As a shepherd moon, Pandora helps her cohort Prometheus confine and shape the main F ring. Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.</p><p>Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) wide and orbits interior to the F ring.</p><p>The small knot seen attached to the core is one of several that Cassini scientists are eyeing as they attempt to distinguish embedded moons from transient clumps of material (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07716">PIA07716</a>).</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 2, 2005, using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers at a distance of approximately 610,000 kilometers (379,000 miles) from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 146 degrees. Image scale is 4 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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07579" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07579: Keeping Things in Check sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07579: Keeping Things in Check sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07579: Keeping Things in Check
<h1>PIA07584: Keeler Moon and Waves</h1><div class="PIA07584" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Cassini's cameras were retargeted to capture the tiny Keeler Gap moon S/2005 S1, visible at the center and first discovered by Cassini a few months ago. Waves raised in the gap edges by the Keeler moonlet's gravity are clearly visible here. Scientists can use the height of the waves to determine the little moon's mass.</p><p>The Keeler moon is 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) across and orbits within its 42-kilometer (26-mile) wide gap. The much larger Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide) is seen here at the upper right, minus its embedded moonlet, Pan. Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) was discovered in images from NASA's Voyager spacecraft.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 853,000 kilometers (530,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of three to aid visibility.</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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07584" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07584: Keeler Moon and Waves sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07584: Keeler Moon and Waves sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07584: Keeler Moon and Waves
<h1>PIA07591: Sweeping Ring View</h1><div class="PIA07591" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>A grandiose gesture of gravity, Saturn's icy rings fan out across many thousands of kilometers of space. The moon Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles across) dutifully follows its path, like the billions and billions of particles comprising the rings. The little moon is seen at the center of this view, within the Encke gap.</p><p>The famous Cassini Division spans upper left corner of the scene. The Cassini Division is approximately 4,800-kilometers-wide (2,980 miles) and is visible in small telescopes from Earth.</p><p>The narrow, knotted F ring is thinly visible just beyond the main rings.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.1 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale on Pan is 13 kilometers (8 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07591" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07591: Sweeping Ring View sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07591: Sweeping Ring View sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07591: Sweeping Ring View
<h1>PIA07595: Clumps for Encke</h1><div class="PIA07595" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Squinting at this view of Saturn's rings reveals not one but two of the four narrow ringlets in the Encke Gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles, wide). The innermost of the two ringlets is much brighter and full of clumps.</p><p>The complicated and dynamic features in the Encke Gap are extensively influenced by the presence of Pan (26 kilometers, or 16 miles, across), which orbits in the center of the gap. The Encke Gap may contain other small moonlets, which imaging team members hope to discover in the future.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 273,000 kilometers (170,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 13 kilometers (8 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07595" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07595: Clumps for Encke sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07595: Clumps for Encke sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07595: Clumps for Encke
<h1>PIA07598: The In-Between Moons</h1><div class="PIA07598" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Cassini looks up from beneath the ringplane to spot Prometheus and Atlas orbiting between Saturn's A and F rings. </p><p>Prometheus is 102 kilometers (63 miles) across. Atlas is 20 kilometers (12 miles) across.</p><p>The F ring displays its characteristic clumps, while scientists are watching diligently for signs of tiny, embedded moons. Prometheus is responsible for some of the clumpy structure in the F ring.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 28, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 13 kilometers (8 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07598" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07598: The In-Between Moons sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07598: The In-Between Moons sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07598: The In-Between Moons
<h1>PIA07610: Mysterious B Ring</h1><div class="PIA07610" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This detailed view of Saturn's mid-B ring shows intriguing structure, the cause of which has yet to be explained by ring scientists. The image shows a radial location located between approximately 107,200 to 115,700 kilometers (66,600 to 71,900 miles) from Saturn.</p><p>The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 3, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn using a filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The image scale 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07610" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07610: Mysterious B Ring sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07610: Mysterious B Ring sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07610: Mysterious B Ring
<h1>PIA07611: Bright "Plateau"</h1><div class="PIA07611" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This close-up view shows an inner region of Saturn's C ring. It covers a radial location on the rings located approximately 78,000 to 80,500 kilometers (48,500 to 50,000 miles) from the center of the planet. Saturn itself has a radius of 60,330 kilometers (34,490 miles).</p></p>A bright feature, informally referred to as a "plateau," arcs across the image center. The plateau is not high in terms of elevation, but rather in terms of particle density (seen here as brightness). The density is fairly uniform within the bright band, and some five times higher than in the surrounding ring structure. Although the many plateaus in Saturn's rings appear unchanged over 25 years of observations, scientists do not know what determines their locations or maintains their sharp boundaries.</p></p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 5, 2005, at a distance of approximately 418,000 kilometers (260,000 miles) from Saturn. The 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</a>. For additional images visit the Cassini imaging team homepage <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07611" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07611: Bright "Plateau" sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07611: Bright "Plateau" sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07611: Bright "Plateau"
<h1>PIA07613: Framing the C Ring</h1><div class="PIA07613" 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 close at Saturn to frame a view encompassing the entire C ring. In the dark region closer to the planet lies the much dimmer D ring. The bright B ring wraps around the left side of the scene, while Saturn's shadow darkens the rings at bottom. For reference, Saturn’s ring sequence from its surface outwards is D, C, B, A, F, G then E.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 4, 2005, at a distance of approximately 627,000 kilometers (390,000 miles) from Saturn. The 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</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/PIA07613" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07613: Framing the C Ring sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07613: Framing the C Ring sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07613: Framing the C Ring
<h1>PIA07615: Switcharoo Moons</h1><div class="PIA07615" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Outside the soft edge of Cassini's F ring, Epimetheus and Janus negotiate their nearly-shared orbit. The two moons' orbits are typically about 50 kilometers (30 miles) apart, and the moons actually change orbits every few years: one moon becoming the innermost of the pair, the other becoming the outermost.</p><p>Epimetheus' diameter is 116 kilometers (72 miles). Janus' diameter is 181 kilometers (113 miles) across. </p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on the two moons.</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</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/PIA07615" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07615: Switcharoo Moons sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07615: Switcharoo Moons sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07615: Switcharoo Moons
<h1>PIA07616: The Cassini Division's Edge</h1><div class="PIA07616" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"></p>The outer reaches of Saturn's Cassini Division merges with the inner A ring (at the right) in a region that is rich in structure. For context, other Cassini views of this region are available (see <a href="/catalog/PIA07512">PIA07512</a>).</p><p>The smooth region leading up to the A ring grows brighter from the left to the right (known as a "ramp" to ring scientists). This region contains a faint "double-wave" structure that is a density feature caused by the influence of the co-orbital moons Janus and Epimetheus. Scientists are interested in observing the evolution of this density wave as the moons swap places in their orbits every few years, presumably resulting in a change in the perturbations that cause this feature.</p><p>This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Sept. 5, 2005, at a distance of approximately 441,000 kilometers (274,000 miles) from Saturn. The 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</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/PIA07616" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07616: The Cassini Division's Edge sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07616: The Cassini Division's Edge sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07616: The Cassini Division's Edge
<h1>PIA07625: Dione and Pandora</h1><div class="PIA07625" lang="en" style="width:694px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This view looks up toward the sunlit side of Saturn's rings, as Dione and Pandora trundle by. The moons are on the near side of the rings and the planet's shadow stretches across the rings in the background.</p><p>The diameter of Dione is (700 miles across), while Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.</p><p>The Cassini spacecraft took this image in visible light with its narrow-angle camera on Sept. 16, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Dione.</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</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/PIA07625" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07625: Dione and Pandora sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07625: Dione and Pandora sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07625: Dione and Pandora
<h1>PIA07628: Satellite Trio</h1><div class="PIA07628" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This excellent grouping of three moons -- Dione, Tethys and Pandora -- near the rings provides a sampling of the diversity of worlds that exists in Saturn's realm.</p><p>A 330-kilometer-wide (205 mile) impact basin can be seen near the bottom right on Dione (at left). Ithaca Chasma and the region imaged during the Cassini spacecraft's Sept. 24, 2005, flyby can be seen on Tethys (middle). Little Pandora makes a good showing here as well, displaying a hint of surface detail.</p><p>Tethys is on the far side of the rings in this view; Dione and Pandora are much nearer to the Cassini spacecraft.</p><p>Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across. Tethys is 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) across and Pandora is 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.</p><p>This image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is about 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel on Dione and Pandora and 9 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel on Tethys.</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</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/PIA07628" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA07628: Satellite Trio sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA07628: Satellite Trio sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA07628: Satellite Trio