Saturn's Glowing Rings

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The Cassini spacecraft recently flew through the plane of Saturn's rings and took this straight-on image of the G ring, showing a bright arc of material seen here as it rounds the ring's edge, or ansa. The spacecraft also took images of the moons Mimas and Calypso (see below). In the image here, the diffuse glow at left shows the extended nature of this faint ring. The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from less than a degree below the ringplane. The ring moved against the background stars during this exposure, creating the star trails seen here. Cassini scientists and engineers are preparing for an upcoming flyby of the moon Enceladus on October 9. This is the second of seven targeted Enceladus fly-bys in the Extended Mission., and the spacecraft will pass through the moon's geyser-like plumes in an attempt to measure fields and particles.

Cassini spacecraft scientists think the bright arc in the G Ring contains relatively large, icy particles held in place by a gravitational an orbital resonance with the moon Mimas. Micrometeoroids collide with the large particles, releasing smaller, dust-sized particles that brighten the arc. The plasma in the giant planet's magnetic field sweeps through this arc continually, dragging out the fine particles and creating the G ring. The ring arc orbits Saturn along the inner edge of the G ring. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 22, 2008, from about 1.2 million kilometers (740,000 miles) from Saturn.

Here's the image of Mimas and the rings:

And one of Calypso, too:

Source:

Cassini web page

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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