Thursday, May 27, 2010

Cassini checking in on Saturn - The Big Picture

Cassini checking in on Saturn - The Big Picture

In this view captured by Cassini on its closest-ever flyby of Saturn's moon Mimas, large Herschel Crater - 130 km (80 mi) wide - dominates the scene.

Cassini came within about 9,500 km (5,900 mi) of Mimas on Feb. 13, 2010. (NASA/JPL/SSI)

A closer view of a feature on Enceladus called Baghdad Sulcus, one of four "tiger stripes" that cross Enceladus' south pole, seen on November 21, 2009.

Cassini was targeting the area to examine plume sources, the scale is approximately 30m (100ft) per pixel. (NASA/JPL)

Saturn's moon Rhea looms near its sibling moon Epimetheus in this Cassini image with the planet and its rings in the background. The two moons aren't actually close to each other.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million km (746,000 mi) from Rhea and 1.6 million km (994,000 mi) from Epimetheus.

The image was taken on March 24, 2010. Image scale is 7 km (5 mi) per pixel on Rhea and 10 km (6 mi) per pixel on Epimetheus. (NASA/JPL/SSI)


Click on the picture or on this link to view more Cassini images

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