Big Moon, Little Moon

By Nancy Atkinson - December 20, 2010 at 1:38 PM UTC | Planetary Science

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This image reminds me of when I was young, my parents would line me and my siblings up for pictures, oldest and tallest in the back and youngest and smallest in the front. Here, the Cassini spacecraft sees two of Saturn's moons lined up for a family photo, showing the hazy orb of giant Titan beyond smaller Tethys.

On Tethys, the large Ithaca Chasma can be seen running roughly north-south for more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). Titan's hazy atmosphere covers up the interesting surface below.

This view looks toward the Saturn-facing sides of Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) and Tethys (1,062 kilometers, or 660 miles across).

See more about this image on the Cassini website.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com