Wisps under the rings

3 January 2016 Astronomy Now
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

Dione’s beautiful wispy terrain is brightly lit alongside Saturn’s elegant rings.

The “wisps” are relatively young fractures on the trailing hemisphere of Dione’s (1123 kilometres or 698 miles across) icy surface.

This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Dione. North on Dione is up. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on 15 August 2015.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometres (1.1 million miles) from Dione. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.

Saturn: Exploring the Ringed Planet

Find out more about Saturn and its moons in this 196-page special edition from Astronomy Now. Available in WHSmith or order online.

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