Saturn’s Rings, Moons Line Up in Latest Stunning Cassini Image

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This latest offering from the Cassini spacecraft shows a wide-angle view of Saturn, its rings, and a sampling of the planet’s moons in varying sizes. Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is in the center of the image, with the smaller moon Enceladus on the far right, while appearing just below the rings on the far left beyond the thin F ring is teeny-tiny Pandora. Oh, to have this view out your spacecraft window as you approach the ringed-world for a flyby!

How do the moons shown here vary in size? Titan is 5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles, across. Enceladus is 504 kilometers, or 313 miles across, while Pandora is 81 kilometers, or 50 miles across. This view looks toward anti-Saturn side of Titan and toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 15, 2011, from a distance of about 844,000 kilometers (524,000 miles) from Titan. Image scale is 50 kilometers (31 miles) per pixel.

See more info and get a larger version from the Cassini website.

One Reply to “Saturn’s Rings, Moons Line Up in Latest Stunning Cassini Image”

  1. Aw Come On!! “…on the far left beyond the thin F ring is teeny-tiny Pandora.
    I thought Pandora orbited around Alpha Centauri A!
    [James Cameron will be a little cheesed off, methinks. :)]

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