Cassini Dark Quartet

The Cassini spacecraft gazes at several albedo features on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Left to right are four dark regions: Fensal, Aztlan, Aaru and a part of Senkyo. The bright area Quivira lies near the center of the image, separating Fensal and Aztlan. This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across). North on Titan is up and rotated 24

Lost Among Rings

Pan is nearly lost within Saturn's rings in this view that captures a small section of the rings from just above the ringplane.Pan (28 kilometers, 17 miles across) appears a small bright dot on the far side of the rings near the middle top of the image. Pan orbits in the Encke Gap of the A ring. See PIA11625 to see Pan casting a shadow on the ring around the time of Saturn's August 2009 equinox.A

Tethys Slips Behind Titan

Saturn's moon Tethys with its prominent Odysseus Crater silently slips behind Saturn's largest moon Titan and then emerges on the other side.Tethys is not actually enshrouded in Titan's atmosphere. Tethys (1062 kilometers, 660 miles across) is more than twice as far from Cassini than Titan (5150 kilometers, 3200 miles across) is in this sequence. Tethys is 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million

Cassini Potato Pair

Pandora and Prometheus, the shepherding moons of the F ring, orbit inside and outside the thin ring.The elongated, potato-like shapes of the two moons are both visible here. Pandora (81 kilometers, 50 miles across) orbits outside the F ring and, with the inner shepherd moon Prometheus, helps to keep the narrow lanes of the F ring in check. The gravity of Prometheus (86 kilometers, 53 miles across

Daphnis' Disturbances

This Cassini image, which at first appears to show a serene scene, in fact reveals dramatic disturbances created in Saturn's A ring by its moon Daphnis.Near the center of the image, tiny Daphnis (8 kilometers, 5 miles across) appears as a bright dot in the Keeler Gap near the edge waves it has created in the A ring. The moon has an inclined orbit and its gravitational pull perturbs the orbits of

Details of Dark Senkyo

The low albedo feature known as Senkyo is visible through the haze of Titan's atmosphere.To learn about this area that appears dark near the moon's equator. This view looks toward Saturn-facing side of Titan (5150 kilometers, 3200 miles across) and is centered on terrain at 1 degree south latitude, 345 degrees west longitude. North on Titan is up and rotated 10 degrees to the right.The image was

Slicing the Arc

The bright arc within Saturn's G ring is shown truncated by the shadow of the planet at the bottom of this image.Although it can't be seen here, the tiny moonlet Aegaeon (formerly known as S/2008 S 1) orbits within the bright arc. See PIA11148 to learn more. This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from about 4 degrees above the ringplane. Many background stars are visible

Shadow and Spokes

A moon's shadow strikes Saturn's rings near bright spokes on the B ring near the center of this Cassini image taken about one month after the planet's August 2009 equinox.Mimas, the moon casting the shadow, is not shown. To learn more about the ghostly radial markings called spokes, see PIA11144 and PIA08288. Spokes appear bright when they are viewed at phase, or Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, angles

Shadows Above and Below

The shadows of two moons appear on Saturn, above and below the plane of the planet's rings.North on Saturn is up in this image, and the shadow of Dione (1123 kilometers, 698 miles across) can be seen south of the planet's equator. The smaller shadow of Mimas (396 kilometers, 246 miles across) is north of the equator. Dione and Mimas both have orbits that are slightly inclined in relation to the

Iapetus' Terrain

Iapetus shows off its puzzling light and dark terrain.Scientists continue to investigate the nature of this moon's surface. See PIA08384 to learn more. Lit terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing side of Iapetus (1471 kilometers, 914 miles across). North on Iapetus is up and rotated 8 degrees to the left. Scale in the original image was 7 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel. The image has been

Streamer-Channels and Shadow

Saturn's moon Prometheus, orbiting near the streamer-channels it has created in the thin F ring, casts a shadow on the A ring in this image taken a little more than a week after the planet's August 2009 equinox.Potato-shaped Prometheus (86 kilometers, 53 miles across) periodically creates streamer-channels in the F ring, and the moon's handiwork can be seen on the left of the image. To learn more