Tracking Saturn's Moons
Explanation:
These five pairs of
Hubble Space Telescope images track some of
Saturn's moons as they orbit the ringed planet.
A pair of images was taken every 97 minutes on November 21, 1995 with
the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2, the normally bright ring system
appearing nearly edge-on. In the top pair, the large
bright moon Dione hangs above center while the smaller moons
Pandora, Prometheus,
and
Mimas (top right image)
appear near the planet's disk close to the outer ring. By the second and third
pair of images, moons
Rhea
and Epimetheus have joined the dance.
During
the Saturn ring plane crossings, the reduction in light from
the edge-on rings provided an opportunity for astronomer's to
explore Saturn's complex moon system and search for elusive
undiscovered satellites.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
