The gift that goes on giving – Cassini at Saturn

16 May 2018 Astronomy Now

Saturn, its rings and their shadows are on display in this stunning image from NASA’s Cassini mission, showing dark bands across the planet’s northern hemisphere cloud tops, along with the elongated shadow of the moon Tethys near the planet’s north polar region. Other moons visible in the image include Dione (front right) and Enceladus (back right), a world that harbours a potentially habitable ocean under an icy crust. Cassini captured this view of Saturn on 6 December, 2007, at a distance of a million miles using red, green and blue spectral filters to produce a natural colour view.

Saturn’s rings cast shadows on the planet’s northern hemisphere in this image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Visible near the top is the elongated shadow of the moon Tethys. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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