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Cassini the Artist: Shadows, Ringshine, Double Crescent Moons

By Nancy Atkinson - March 16, 2010 05:25 PM UTC | Planetary Science

I often ponder whether the Cassini spacecraft is a better scientist or artist. I found three recent images from Cassini that definitely give the nod to artist, but surely there's lots of great science here as well. In this image, Saturn casts its shadow on the rings, but it also shows how the rings reflect sunlight onto the dark side of the planet. Here Saturn appears dimly illuminated by this ringshine. This view looks toward the southern, unilluminated side of the rings from about 10 degrees below the ringplane, and was taken on Jan. 2, 2010 when Cassini was about 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. Below: beautiful moons.

While this image is stunningly gorgeous, perhaps the most amazing thing is that it was snapped by Cassini's cameras just yesterday (March 15, 2010) and beamed back to Earth today! This is a raw, uncalibrated image and the only details posted about it is that the camera was pointing toward Tethys at approximately 2,410,546 kilometers away. Can anyone guess what the second moon is?

Another beauty, Dione and Titan make a smiling pair of crescent moons. This image was taken on March 12, 2010 and received on Earth March 13, 2010. The camera was pointing toward Dione at approximately 2,211,699 kilometers away.

For more great images see the Cassini website, or the CICLOPS website

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Nancy Atkinson

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